Dragon's Blood
by Deathscythe139
Summary: Takes place towards the end of ROTS, but deviates from then. The Jedi have many secrets hidden away, this is the story of one secret, the story of the last Draconian Jedi...Updated: pictures on my profile page
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Star Wars or any of the characters, that's just a dream. This does contain a small spoiler of Revenge of the Sith right at the start, but after that it deviates from the film.

Anyway, this is my first fan-fic so any ideas, hints etc. are welcome, as are reviews, so here goes.

**Dragon's Blood**

Chapter 1

Master Obi-wan Kenobi looked on in horror, his mouth hanging open loosely as his eyes were locked to the image in front of him. If he had noticed, it would have seemed to him that time had slowed to a crawl as his mind looked over and struggled to comprehend what he had just seen. His body felt numb and heavy, as if the sudden realisation of what he had seen were a weight on his shoulders.

On the small holo-viewer in front of him, was Anakin with bodies strewn around him, small wisps of smoke from their freshly burned robes could just be seen. Most of the bodies he noticed were small in comparison to Anakin's adult frame, then it dawned on him what they were.

Younglings.

As he had watched them attempt to defend themselves against the ferocious slaughter that Anakin easily dispensed, a tear had escaped his eye to roll down his cheek. The thought of the man he had come to call his brother, who he had trained, lived and fought beside for a good portion of his life did not ease the anguish on Obi-wan's face as he gazed at the expression of raw hate on Anakin's.

Holding back a second tear, he reached for the display and quickly turned it off.

"I can't watch any more."

Yoda sighed, believing that it would bring some resolve to his mind and help to ease his companion, to show that he also did not want to watch the display anymore.

"Destroy the Sith, we must."

Obi-wan thought for a moment, weighing his options, before replying.

"Send me to face the Emperor, I cannot fight Anakin, he is like a brother to me."

"To fight this Lord Sidious, strong enough, you are not."

"I cannot do it Master Yoda, I cannot face my brother."

Yoda turned away from Obi-wan, his gimer stick tapping on the smooth floor, hiding the sadness in his eyes.

"Twisted by the dark side, young Skywalker has become. The boy you trained, gone he is…consumed by Darth Vader."

Yoda slowly shook his head, his face downcast towards the floor.

"Unfortunate, this is."

Obi-wan turned to face the speaker, his eyes narrowing slightly as his gaze rested on the old Jedi Master.

"Unfortunate? Master Yoda, that word hardly sums up this situation!"

Yoda sensed the underlying hostility in his voice and glanced up to meet Obi-wan's glare with his own.

"Unfortunate that this foreseen it could not, a great tragedy for the Jedi it is, to have our friend fall to the Dark side"

"So, what can we do? with Anakin against us, we have little hope in defeating the Chancellor, let alone the clone army."

Yoda lowered his head, closing his eyes to give him some reprieve to clear his mind so guidance from the Force could reach him. After what seemed like a small eternity, his voice was merely a whisper in the quiet halls.

"Send a warning we must, then help we will require, from an old friend"

Obi-wan looked puzzled for a moment, he could think of no one that could help them stand a chance against the combined forces of Anakin and his Sith Lord master, not since the murder of Master Windu. He carefully re-calibrated the message to warn any remaining Jedi away from the Temple.

His puzzlement did not cease when Yoda jumped onto his shoulder and pointed him towards the doors leading to the medical level of the Temple. There, Yoda collected as many containers from the cold room as he could gather into a carry bag. Handing the bag to Obi-wan, he jumped onto his back yet again.

"Beyond the lower levels, go now we must"

Obi-wan barely gave a conscious effort to control the direction his legs began taking them, he had learned a long time ago that when the Force wishes to guide you, it was best to let it. But still, it did not ease the feeling of unease that nagged in the back of his mind, as they both made their journey through the maintenance levels.

After what seemed like a few hours of walking through the maze deep beneath the Temple, they had found themselves in a small storage room. The room was poorly lit but a few crates could be seen. One of which, Yoda was inspecting until a nod of satisfaction could be seen. With the Force, Yoda lifted the crate and rotated it onto it's side, then angled another side towards a nearby wall. Slotting the crate into the corner, a small control panel revealed itself on the side facing them. Yoda hobbled over to the panel to press a sequence on the scarlet, crystalline buttons on the panel, causing the floor next to the crate to lower into a series of stairs leading down.

Beyond the stairs, Obi-wan stood in awe at the sight of the cavern they had entered. It could easily hold the uppermost levels of the Temple within it, if it were not for the centre of the floor raised to the middle of the chamber. The cavern looked entirely natural and a thick layer of dust had settled on the walkway that extended from them to the centre. Large crystals embedded in the rocky walls dimly illuminated the cavern, seemingly focusing their light on the centre.

After crossing the walkway, the centre held a large dais with ornate circular patterns carved into the rock. Here, the floor was smooth and showed signs of age. Obi-wan could no longer contain his confusion.

"Master, may I ask what this place is?"

Yoda, having made his way over to a small cylindrical pillar extending from the floor, looked back towards Obi-wan.

"Resting place this is, an old friend of mine we have come to awaken from her sleep, help us she can"

Nodding with some understanding, Obi-wan watched as Yoda turned the top of the pillar, which split into four pieces before retracting away. In their place, a large scarlet crystal, similar in size to a lightsaber, glowed faintly.

Using the Force, Yoda gently twisted the crystal until it glowed a vibrant red, before retracting into the pillar. A loud rumbling was heard as the floor in the centre of the dais began to retract away to reveal an opening. Jets of vapour plumed into the air around the centre as a monolith could be faintly seen rising from the opening.

When the vapour had cleared, Obi-wan gasped at what he saw embedded inside the shining monolith. He had seen someone in carbon-freeze before and could clearly remember the horrified look on the victim's face. But on closer inspection, the figure of the young woman had no such horrified look, with her arms neatly crossed over her chest and her eyes closed, her face relaxed as if she were merely sleeping inside the carbonite.

While Obi-wan was unconsciously examining the woman's face, Yoda had removed the containers from the bag and began pouring the contents into a nearby pillar that had risen next to the monolith. The aroma of which shook Obi-wan out of his trance.

"May I ask what you are doing Master?"

"Special considerations she does require, when awoken from the carbonite she is, very weak and thirsty she will be"

_Thirsty?_ Obi-wan thought, as he watched Yoda return to the small pillar. A pair of smaller crystals had now sprouted from the top, which Yoda held with his small hand.

"Come away you must, or much danger you will be in"

Obi-wan joined Yoda at the small pillar, as Yoda pulled the two crystals together with his clawed fingers. The carbonite shimmered before it began to glow slightly as the surface around the woman began to evaporate, until with a thud she landed on the floor, shivering violently. Obi-wan began to walk towards her, until Yoda latched onto his leg, preventing him from going to help her. Glancing down at him, confusion swept over Obi-wan's face as Yoda shook his head, his eyes carrying a warning. Turning to look back at her, he now could make out some of her features.

Her body was clothed in skin-tight black leather, with buckles on her gloves and heeled boots to hold them in place. The top was cut low enough to not be too revealing and more buckles could be seen across her stomach. Her face couldn't be seen through the long bangs of white hair that hung in front of it. As she crouched on the floor, Obi-wan could make out a few small black ties that bound her hair in an elaborate style as it flowed down her back to her waist.

Slowly, the woman shakily climbed from the floor and lurched towards the pillar containing the liquid Yoda had poured into it. It's metallic aroma had wafted over the dais and filled Obi-wan's nostrils, his eyes widened as he recognised it. _Blood? That is what we were carrying here, but why?_

His eyes widened further as the young woman leaned towards it and began drinking from it. Obi-wan recoiled in disgust at the sight of her drinking, never before had he seen someone do such a thing, he staggered backwards forgetting that Yoda was still holding his leg. As he tumbled backwards, he let out a small yelp of surprise before he fell ungraciously onto the rocky floor.

Yoda, apparently taking all this in his stride, walked up to the young woman as she finished drinking and produced a small handkerchief for her. She let a small smile as she took it from him and wiped the remaining fluid from her mouth.

"How feel you, my old friend?"

"I have felt better, how long has it been?"

"Too long, it has"

Yoda smiled as they walked over to Obi-wan . Yoda noted how quickly she had recovered from the ordeal of being un-frozen, each of her movements now growing less stiffly as her strength returned. He smiled in satisfaction before quickly suppressing a small laugh as he watched Obi-wan climbing from the floor, rubbing his head where it had connected with the small control pillar.

Obi-wan found a black gloved hand being offered to him, he extended his own as the strong arm pulled him effortlessly from the floor.

Straight into a pair of deep red, feline eyes.

Obi-wan quickly carried out a quick mental reality check on the events thus far before coming to the conclusion that he was not hallucinating from his head contacting the pillar. Her pale complexion further made her eyes more prominent, her young face framed with a pair of long streaks of hair. He found himself stumbling for words as his eyes were locked on her mysteriously enchanting image.

"Are you injured?"

He quickly re-checked that his conclusion was correct when he noticed her long fangs as she smiled gently. Her voice was soft and gentle, with an undertone of confidence in each word. Slowly shaking his head, he decided that he had best introduce himself before she considers him a next meal.

"Erm, pleased to meet you, I am Master Obi-wan Kenobi and this is…"

"Jedi Master Yoda, yes I know, a pleasure to meet you. I am Guardian Talia Shirikari, I trust that there is a dire situation that you require my assistance in?"

"Attacked the Temple, the Chosen One has, one with Dark side he is now."

Talia cocked an eyebrow at this.

"So, he has finally been found, what do you propose old friend?"

"Escape we must, gather what Jedi we have left, before deciding on our next action, to take"

Talia let out a small sigh before turning to the dais. Raising her hand, a pair of small pillars emerged from the floor, a silver hilt on the top of each. Both hilts were identical and held a scarlet crystal at their base. With a flick of her fingers, the hilts leaped into her hands before being neatly attached to the sides of her thighs. Turning back towards them, she gave a small nod of readiness.

"We should take my ship, it would be most suitable for our needs"

With that, Talia bowed down to allow Yoda to climb onto her back, as the three crossed the walkway out of the cavern. As they walked through a long corridor, their boots echoing along the rocky hallway, Yoda informed Talia of Anakin and what had happened, Obi-wan recounting of what he knew of the relationship between Sidious and Anakin.

Eventually, the corridor opened into another cavern, equal in size and design to the previous one. In the centre stood a dagger shaped ship, Obi-wan noted it was similar in design to the recent Jedi starfighters, but on a much bigger scale and was much more sleek and lethal looking.

The pair of forward wings were tipped with large blade-like sections of hull which were highly polished and shined brightly in the dim light. The outer wings were crescent-shaped and were curved inward and forward, the panels of which pulsed scarlet energy dimly. Behind the ellipse-shaped cockpit, the hull flowed back into an egg-shaped section, presumably for the engine and living areas. The whole ship, except for the bladed-sections and the wings, was painted white.

As they neared the ship, Obi-wan summarised that it was apparently a small cruiser, of similar size and graceful lines to the Nubian cruiser he travelled on with Qui-Gon and Padme so long ago. But this ship was clearly designed for combat instead of peaceful transport. Passing underneath the cockpit, Talia opened a small panel and keyed in a code on the small crystalline console. A ramp slowly lowered from behind the cockpit, leading into the aft section of the ship. When the ramp had lowered to the ground, the interior of the ship brightened, as if the ship was coming back to life.

Once inside, Talia lead them to a seating and control area behind the door to the cockpit. The room was roughly circular-shaped, with a pair of crescent-shaped seats facing the control consoles, which were covered with crystalline buttons and holographic displays.

"There isn't sufficient room in the cockpit for you to accompany me, however you can contact me from here if you need to."

Yoda and Obi-wan both nodded and seated themselves down before familiarising themselves with the controls. Talia stepped into the cockpit and closed the door behind her.

"Aria, are you ready for us to lift off?"

"_Yes milady, the main drive matrix is activated and stable, all systems are in standby mode and ready for operation, it is good to see you again._"

The soft, feminine voice of her ship's computer brought her a small smile of satisfaction. She stepped forward and grasped the control yokes suspended from the ceiling and floor, at once, the yokes extended her to lay suspended in the centre of the cockpit. All around her, she could see the exterior of the ship, the outlines of the cavern being displayed as a wireframe projected onto the large transparent bubble around her.

"It is good to see you too, are our passengers ready?"

"_Yes, i have adjusted their control language to basic and they seem to be familiar with me now._"

"Good, could you open a comm line with them for me, Yoda? Obi-wan? where are we headed?"

"_Meet with Senator Organa, we must, hearings from the Senate meeting we require, a plan of action we can then form._"

With a nod of her head, Talia raised the controls, lifting the ship from the ground, the wing panels glowing with energy. She manoevered the ship to a small cave in the rocky cavern that was hidden in shadows, but was illuminated on her display. Gracefully guiding the ship through it, the cave opened into a deep gorge. Rolling the ship sideways, she floated the ship between the narrow walls and into another cave that lead out into the evening Coruscanti sky. Talia increased the engine power with a push on her leg controls and soon they were in the darkness of space.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Obi-wan sat in what was apparently the ship's galley, stirring his tea as he pondered on all that had happened, his thoughts always dwindling back to their new colleague. He had far too many questions for her, but he felt that she would answer him when she thought that she should.

His mind drifted to thoughts of this ship as his eyes glanced around the room. When they had first lifted off from Coruscant and he had been learning the controls on his console, the ship had spoken to him, asking if he required some assistance before changing the language for him. After travelling on countless starships during his life, he had come across few ships with a computer that spoke in Basic, let alone one as sophisticated as this one seemed to be.

Across the table from him, Yoda was sat cross-legged in a Jedi trance on top of the seat. A part of him hoped that the wisened old master could form a plan of action that would save the Jedi order, but he already knew what the first events would involve.

He was broken from his spiralling thoughts of Anakin's betrayal by the sound of Talia's boots in the corridor leading into the galley. She walked over to the food dispenser before returning to sit next to Obi-wan, a plate of meat and vegetables and a cup in front of her. A cup of what, he dared not wish to think about.

Talia had been noting Obi-wan's nearly constant stares every time she was around him and it was beginning to irritate her. With a mental sigh, she chose to eat her meal while Obi-wan managed to gather the courage to stop glancing at her and talk to her instead. A part of her wondered why she had this affect on him. _Possibly my clothes,_ she concluded.

With her meal and their drinks finished, Talia took them back to the food dispenser for recycling. Deciding to take the initiative, she attempted to strike up a conversation with the Jedi master.

"Care for another?"

Shaken from his thoughts, Obi-wan answered on reflex.

"Oh yes, please."

Returning with another two cups and offering him one, Talia sat directly across from him, next to and below a meditating Yoda. Seeing him glance up at the old master, she smiled slightly.

"I have seen him meditate for days like that, it is his way of working out a solution to large problems."

Smiling and leaning back in his seat with his arms crossed, Obi-wan felt more at ease with her since he was having difficulty starting a conversation with her.

"Yes I have too, might I ask you a few questions?"

Sipping from her cup, Talia slowly nodded in agreement.

"Firstly, I have never seen or heard of any species like yourself."

"I am a Draconian, it is not uncommon for people to have heard of us now, what they do hear of us is only in old legends and fairy tales."

Obi-wan cocked an eyebrow slightly.

"An ancient race then? I can't recall ever seeing anything in the archives of you."

"That is due to us almost being considered a secret race long before the Jedi of today was founded, I doubt that there are no more than a handful of people left in the galaxy that truly knew of us."

"And of you? I have never heard of the rank of guardian before."

"Only a small number of us have any sense of the Force, fewer still become Jedi. My people thought it best for me to help you, therefore I became a guardian."

"Master Yoda referred you as an old friend, something tells me that you are older than you seem."

Talia slowly sipped from her cup, debating if she should tell him, when a familiar ripple through the Force signalled the answer being provided for her.

"Three thousand years by our scale, she is"

Obi-wan's eyes widened for a moment, as Talia smiled, the tips of her fangs showing. His astonishment could be heard in his voice.

"But you still look young? How can that be?"

His answer would not come, as a small alarm rang out in the room.

"_Milady, we have several fighter craft approaching and attempting to contact us_"

With that, the three Jedi ran through the corridors towards the forward areas, Obi-wan and Yoda resuming their positions at their consoles as Talia entered the cockpit and swung herself into the control yokes.

Talia had left the ship orbiting one of Coruscant's moons while they awaited contact from Senator Organa, however they had been discovered.

"Open the channel please Aria."

"_…I repeat, attention unidentified craft, this area is under the Imperial Starfleet control, identify yourself, power down your shields and submit yourself for escort. All orbiting craft are to be boarded and searched for renegade Jedi…_"

_Hmm, their scanners must think that the motivation field is a defensive shield, I need more information on them…_

"Obi-wan?"

"Clone Arc gunships, heavily armed, they are out of communication range to the base on Coruscant"

"Detect no other patrols, I can."

Talia considered her options for a moment, before flicking the respond button on her controls.

"This is the Draconian cruiser _Oni's Star_, we will not submit ourselves for escort nor boarding. Any attack on this ship will be responded."

"_Understood, Oni's Star_"

The three Arc-170 fighters turned away in formation from the ship to gain some distance between them.

"Aria, combat-mode please"

The displays being projected onto the cockpit bubble changed around her as the lights around her dimmed to a red hue, being replaced with targeting brackets on each of the fighters. In front of her, hatches on the front wings retracted to allow a cannon above and below each wing to deploy. At the very front of each wing, the forward blade sections split in half horizontally, revealing a large cannon nestled between. Behind her on the main hull, a pair of turrets swung out into position, the firing arcs of each being illuminated on her display. The dull base drone of the engine system grew slightly louder as the drive matrix brought itself to full power.

"Obi-wan, Yoda, take control of the turrets and ready yourselves please."

"Advise caution, I do."

Nodding in agreement, Talia quickly throttled the ship up and nose-dived towards the moon, the fighters racing after her. As she neared the moon's surface, targeting brackets lit up around many small asteroids, apparently a mining operation on the surface was in operation.

_This will do nicely._

Weaving the ship around the asteroids gracefully, an alarm sounded as a fighter achieved a missile-lock and fired. Talia pulled her right leg yoke up, together with swinging her left arm yoke over her right, twisting the ship tightly on its axis and behind a passing asteroid, the missile narrowly impacting on it.

With a quick twist of the yokes, the ship span around on its axis to race back towards the surface, leaving the fighter pilots baffled but still in pursuit. They carefully kept their distance as they trained their blaster cannons on the ship while weaving through the asteroids.

Blaster fire filled the space around the ship as they ducked and rolled around the outer gantries of the mining station. Obi-wan and Yoda both returned fire, their turrets beams lancing out towards the pursuing fighters while Talia erratically manoeuvred the ship through the outer support structures. Spying an entrance inside on her display, Talia flipped the ship over to free-fall down and into the station itself. The walls of the cavernous metal corridor were lit up as blaster fire streaked past them.

_These 'clones' seem to be quite skilled, we need to end this soon._

A small smile crept across her face as her wireframe display showed a large junction point ahead, with a pair of tunnels branching off near the top. Talia pushed on her leg yokes, accelerating the ship as she weaved through several supports across the corridor.

Obi-wan glanced at his radar / environment display, his eyes widened as he realised they were travelling impossibly fast to make the junction. An explosion sounded as Yoda managed to neatly clip a wing off the trailing fighter, causing it to spin into the wall of the corridor, flames erupting after the other fighters as the fuel tanks exploded.

As they burst out into the corridor, Talia pulled her body into a foetal position while pulling a small lever on each of her arm yokes. The ship flipped and threw the rear hull upward into the junction. Talia pulled her triggers and six beams lanced out from her forward cannons and into the opening of the corridor, catching the leading fighter and tearing it apart.

The remaining fighter pulled tightly up as Talia rolled and flipped the ship, the underneath facing the top of the junction and the forward wings aiming towards one of the upper corridors. Obi-wan found his turret aiming towards the fighter as it scrambled to slow down and opened fire, removing most of its starboard wing. Talia pushed hard on her leg yokes and threw the ship into the tight corridor as what remained of the fighter ploughed into the roof of the junction a split second behind them. Flames erupted around them, engulfing a worker droid carrying a large rock as the ship darted around it.

Talia slowed to spin the ship on its axis and strafe sideways through the corridor as it changed shape. After a moment, the corridor opened into a cavernous area. On her display, Talia selected a corridor that lead them outside and neatly guided the ship through it and out into space once again.

Obi-wan visibly relaxed from his controls, thankful that he was allowed a respite from the near-death experiences in the station. He glanced over to Yoda, who to his surprise looked reasonably relaxed.

Yoda caught his friend's glance and chuckled at his paled face.

"First time in a Draconian ship for you, it is."

Obi-wan could only slowly nod, as his mind came to comprehend the unbelievable manoeuvres the ship had easily performed. He struggled to believe that a ship this size could have manoeuvrability not only out-classing anything he had seen before, but also seemed to defy the laws of physics as he knew them. He now had more questions for Talia once they were out of harm's way. With a quick check of his display, no more fighters could be seen up to the apparent range of the scanners, which was considerable.

Yoda shifted his display to access the star charts as Talia opened a comm.

"_Where to now old friend?_"

"To Mustafar you must go, feel Skywalker's presence there I have. To the Senate, go, I must. The meeting over now, it is."

Talia guided the ship back towards Coruscant and soon they were flying through the towering cityscape towards the immense Senate building. She slowed the ship as they approached the landing area, lowering the ramp as Yoda leaped from it and onto the hanger floor. He quickly dispatched a few clonetroopers with his lightsaber as Obi-wan opened fire on the remaining with the lower turret. A clone gunship had managed to take off and began turning its missile tubes towards them, until Obi-wan cut it in half with his turret's beams. Once no more threats appeared, Yoda quickly saluted Talia in the cockpit with his lightsaber. Nodding towards him, she pulled the ship away from the hanger and flew upwards away from the city.

A few fighters had taken off from the other side of the Senate building and gave chase after the _Star_, only to be cut down by Obi-wan's turrets as they streaked out of the atmosphere and into space. After darting around a cruiser that was trying its best to shoot them out of the sky, Talia plotted the co-ordinates for Mustafar into the jump drive and with a blast of energy, the ship leaped into a portal in space and disappeared.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The scarlet-hued vortex of hyperspace swirled endlessly as the _Oni's Star_ slid through it. Occasionally, small bursts of crackling energy lashed out from the motivation field surrounding the ship to disappear into the void, illuminating the ship's exterior with a bright flash.

Obi-wan was seated in the galley once again, stirring another cup of tea endlessly as his mind contemplated what he had to face when they reached their destination. His old master, Qui-Gon, often used a simple cup of tea to help him to relax his mind and the old habit had rubbed off on him somewhat. At the moment, it did little to help him.

Talia watched him as she lay on one of the bunks in the living area that the galley opened out into. Although she had her own quarters elsewhere in the ship, she felt that she needed to be here to help her fellow Jedi through his troublesome time. After watching him stir his now cold tea for almost an hour now, she was becoming worried for him. The strange look of concentration and helplessness on his face brought about an unsettling memory from the past.

Shrugging the memory to the back of her mind, she raised herself off the bunk and joined Obi-wan in the galley, opening the cooler and filled a cup with the dark scarlet liquid. After warming it briefly in the small food dispenser, she turned to face him.

"May I join you?"

Snapped from his endless circle of thoughts, Obi-wan quickly composed himself and gave a small nod. Talia slid into the seat across the table from him and slowly sipped on her cup. Obi-wan sighed.

"I don't want to kill him."

Talia rested the cup on the table before she responded.

"You do not have to, we are going to try to save him from the dark path before him. If we must end his life, then we do it to preserve his memory, of who he was, not who he has become."

Somewhere within Obi-wan, he knew this to be true. He knew that if someone had told Anakin that he would fall to the dark side and play a pivotal role in destroying the Jedi order, Anakin would have laughed and said they were joking. That was how he wanted to remember him if it came to it, the young boy from Tatooine that had grown into one of the best Jedi in the order and a good friend to him.

Obi-wan smiled at that thought, remembering the light-hearted quips from him during the heat of combat, his content smile whenever they talked or joked. It brought him comfort remembering those days.

"Thank you, for reminding me of who he was, the man he is now is not Anakin, I shall try to keep that in mind."

Talia softly smiled at him.

"We should be arriving in a few hours, you should take the opportunity to rest and clear your mind."

With a thankful nod, Obi-wan rose from the seat and climbed into the bunk that Talia was previously occupying, realising how tired how he was. His last thought before he fell asleep was that the bunk smelt of roses.

Talia smiled contentedly at the sight of him. Her drink long finished, she returned it to the food dispenser and quietly walked through the living area before entering her quarters. It felt like a small eternity since she had been here as she looked around at the mementos she had collected over the centuries.

Her eyes came to rest on a small holo-frame and she lifted it up to get a better look. On the picture was a group of Jedi she knew long ago, smiling happily with her in the centre. Her arms were draped around the shoulders of the man next to her, their hands holding each others. The woman on her left performing a complicated-looking pose with the man sat in front of her, both of them laughing. The man next to the one Talia was holding had his arms and legs crossed over, leaning against him and smiling cheerfully. She smiled at that memory, of her old friends enjoying the good times.

Pressing a small button on the side of the frame, the picture shifted to show just her and the man she was holding, but this time the man was kissing her cheek, with a visible blush on her cheeks. She sighed softly, they both knew that she would easily out-live him, but still, they enjoyed their time together. Even though that was centuries ago, she still smiled with the warmth that those memories gave her. On the edge of the picture, the small green, clawed finger revealed the identity of the one holding the holo-cam.

Setting the holo- frame carefully back on the table, she walked into the refresher, unbuckling the multiple buckles that held her skin-tight armour in place. Pulling another set from a cupboard, she set about cleaning herself before changing. Satisfied that she was suitably refreshed, she sat at her small table and carefully examined her hilts for damage or age.

At first glance, her hilts looked as if they were an overly-elaborate design of lightsaber, but they were radically different when closely inspected. Containing the signature Draconian power crystal that ran through the centre of the hilt and topped with a similar control crystal, the two crystals were joined with intricately woven strands of polished metal. Although beautifully made, a Draconian sword was just as deadly as a lightsaber.

With a mental request to the hilt from her mind, the control crystal glowed and the power crystal sang in readiness. Another request and with a loud crackle of energy, the thin, scarlet energy blade formed above the crystal. The blade sang with energy as she moved it around, re-acquainting herself with it, before she requested for it to deactivate. The blade disappeared into nothingness with nothing more than a hiss. Satisfied, Talia replaced her hilts into a stand on the table, before setting her chrono and laying down on her bed to rest.

Padme had never been more worried for Anakin. Since he had returned from the smouldering Temple to tell her that he had to leave, she had known something was wrong. Something felt differently about him, something darker. All she knew was that she had to see him, which is why she was now on her Nubian cruiser on course for Mustafar.

With a beeping signal, Threepio deactivated the hyper-drive and the familiar blue vortex streaked back into normal space. Before her, the molten surface of the planet beckoned her towards it, her husband awaiting her on the surface. Cruising towards a landing platform, a figure could be seen watching them from a gantry before hurrying towards them. Padme almost ran down to the loading ramp to join him.

A crackling portal in space opened to allow the dagger-shaped _Oni's Star_ to streak from hyperspace. Talia quickly throttled the ship to full power as she dived at full speed towards the planet. Her display showed a single installation which she guided the ship towards.

Behind her in the forward control room, Obi-wan felt a pang of unease sweep through him as the planet's atmosphere howled past them. The presence of Padme he could feel down below did nothing to help his uneasiness.

Padme rushed down the loading ramp and straight into Anakin's arms, she felt elated that her beloved husband was fine. Anakin smiled as he held his wife against him. Tears began to stream down Padme's cheeks as she looked at her husbands face.

"Shhh…It is alright now, you're safe."

"How did you know I was here?"

"I felt your presence as soon as you arrived in system."

"Oh Anakin! I was so worried you were hurt!"

"As you can see, I'm fine, we have ended the war by stopping the Seperatist leaders and we have brought stability to our new Empire."

_We?_ Thought Padme as she glanced around behind Anakin. Behind him, a pair of scarlet-robed Royal guards stood to attention at the edge of the landing platform, their electro-staffs held by their sides.

"Anakin, this is wrong, we need democracy in the Republic, not this Empire that Palpatine dictates over, can't you see that?"

Anakin grew infuriated, _Why can she not see that I'm doing this for her, for us?_

"I did this for you Padme, I did this to save you, Palpatine can teach me how to use my powers to save you, he is my Master now, he can help us."

"I don't want this Anakin, All I want is your love!"

"Love wont save you Padme, only my new powers can do that."

"But at what cost? Don't do this Anakin! This is not your destiny, you're better than this!"

"I won't lose you the way I lost my mother! I've become more powerful than any Jedi has ever dreamed of and I've done it for you. To protect you."

"You're not making any sense, Anakin. Let's leave this place while we still can."

"No, don't you see, we don't have to run. I have brought peace to the Empire. I am more powerful than the Emperor. I can overthrow him, I know I can, and together you and I can rule the galaxy. We can make things the way we want them to be."

Padme yanked her hands away from her husband, staring at him in baffled horror.

"I don't believe what you're saying, you've changed."

She slowly backed away from him towards her ship. Anakin exploded at her.

"The Jedi turned against me, don't you turn against me too!"

Anakin pushed at her with the Force, sending her flying onto her back, her head glancing off the storage crate she found herself against. Darkness consumed her.

Anakin began stalking towards her, fury pouring from his eyes, before he stopped and looked upwards into the sky. With a roll of thunder, the sky parted around a dagger-shaped ship as it streaked from the clouds towards the station at breakneck speed.

Sensing his old master's presence onboard, Anakin turned back to the limp body of his wife before he let out a shriek of fury.

"You led them here? To me!"

The _Oni's Star_ hurtled toward the landing platform roaring to a stop as the ramp descended. The ship hovered near the edge until a pair of figures leaped down to the platform, before it rose to hover nearby. The Royal guards readied themselves for action as they walked onto the platform.

Obi-wan walked cautiously towards the fuming Anakin, while Talia walked over to kneel by Padme with her hand on Padme's temple. After a moment, Padme's eyes fluttered open as she groggily awoke. Talia helped her onto her feet before she turned to face Anakin. Anakin sneered at his wife.

"You brought them here to kill me!"

He reached out with the Force once again, but this time to choke her. Talia stepped between them and severed Anakin's connection to Padme through the Force just in time as Padme collapsed back to the ground. Anakin glared in rage at Talia before focusing his attention back on Obi-wan.

"You turned her against me!"

"You did that yourself."

Talia backed Obi-wan up, attempting to help Anakin realise what he was doing.

"She finally saw what you have become, you have allowed this dark lord to twist your mind"

"Until now…you have become the very thing you swore to destroy."

"DON'T LECTURE ME! I do not fear the dark side as you do Obi-wan, I have brought peace, justice, freedom and security to my new Empire!"

Talia cocked an eyebrow.

"Your new Empire?"

Anakin sneered at her threateningly.

"Don't make me kill you."

Crossing her arms across her chest, Talia mentally smirked at that possibility, she had faced Sith masters before, this 'boy' did not seem much of a threat to her. However, she felt that this was not her fight, it was between Anakin and Obi-wan, she was there if things went out-of-hand.

Anakin turned back to Obi-wan, his face contorted in barely-restrained fury.

"Anakin…my allegiance is to the Republic… to democracy!"

Anakin reached for his lightsaber with his gloved hand, shaking his head slowly. The Royal guards took this as their cue to activate their electro-staffs.

"If you're not with me, then you shall be destroyed."

Un-hooking his lightsaber from his belt, Obi-wan readied himself for action and ignited it.

"Only the Sith deal with absolutes, I shall do what I must."

"_I shall deal with these two, you concentrate on Anakin, may the Force be with you." _Talia sent through the Force. Obi-wan glanced back to her, responding with a quick nod. She began walking towards the guards, stopping when they began stalking her cautiously.

"You will try."

Anakin simultaneously leaped at Obi-wan and ignited his lightsaber, furiously swinging it down towards Obi-wan. Obi-wan blocked the attack but was pushed back by the raw fury of the strike. They traded hits with Anakin on the attack and Obi-wan on the defence, their sabers a blur of swirling blue as one fought to overpower the other. Obi-wan found himself being pushed back along the gantry as he dodged and blocked Anakin's powerful blows.

Talia stood calmly between the two guards as they circled her, her hands ready over her hilts as they rested on her thighs. She concentrated on the one passing in front of her with the Force, analysing her foe. To her surprise, she detected that only the torso was flesh, the arms and legs being mechanical. When she reached into the mind of her opponent, she could only read a blank slate, concluding that this poor fellow had had his mind erased, knowing only obedience and loyalty. She felt only sorrow for him and vowed to end his suffering. Concentrating on the other guard, she confirmed that he was in an identical position.

"Shall we begin?"

With a twirl of their electro-staffs, they suddenly charged her in response. Her sword hilts leaped into her hands and activated as she deftly blocked both strikes, spinning to kick one guard in the back of the head as she blocked another strike from his companion. With one guard temporarily stunned, she focused on the remaining one and unleashed a barrage of quick strikes and parries, all of which where blocked by the twirling electro-staff. Spinning into a roundhouse kick, which to her surprise was blocked by his staff, she brought one sword behind her back to deflect the staff that his companion had thrown at her. She kept that sword behind her back to deflect an incoming attack from the closest guard as she punched the staff that had been thrown away from her.

Anakin and Obi-wan fought back into a meeting room and up to the central table. Obi-wan back-flipped onto the table as Anakin swept the floor with his blade, slicing the back off the seat that had been behind Obi-wan a moment before. Anakin stepped on what remained of the seat as he rose onto the table, and with the Force pushed Obi-wan back. Obi-wan quickly recovered and sent a flurry of glancing hits at Anakin, before they both span around each other. Anakin quickly dropped to the floor, kicking Obi-wan's feet away with a sweeping kick and rising to drive his saber through Obi-wan's chest. Obi-wan deflected it at the last moment and pushed Anakin's saber out of his hand with the Force.

Anakin dove for Obi-wan's saber and they both rolled off the table. Anakin neatly flicked himself off the floor, using the Force to call his saber back to his hand, barely igniting it in time to block Obi-wan's attack. Anakin thrashed his saber wildly, catching the control consoles around them as he forced Obi-wan back into a corridor.

Talia flipped over the head of one of the guards, spinning her sabers over her head to block his overhead attacks. She kicked his feet away as she landed and quickly passed her right sword over her shoulder and around her back to block the other's attack. Spinning as she crouched on the floor, she forced him back along the walkway as he evaded her attack before renewing his efforts. She had to admit, they were quite skilled.

The downed guard had picked himself up from the floor and charged at her. She moved her swords independently as she blocked attacks from both sides, before suddenly concentrating on the guard on her left and a quick thrust removed his mechanical hand. Sparks flew from the stump as the guard withdrew for the moment to regain his staff. She turned to block the remaining guard as he lunged her with both of her swords. The swords and staff locked and the guard began using his strength to try to overpower her. Barely trying against his full strength, Talia sidestepped him and raked the tip of her sword along his back. The guard fell to the floor in pain, blood spurting from the wound, before falling off the edge of the walkway.

The gantry that Obi-wan and Anakin were duelling on heaved and groaned as its damaged safety systems failed. Alarms blared as the two clashed their sabers, one in careful defence, the other wild offence. Cables that weren't cut by their energy blades snapped under the strain of the weight of lava that flowed against the collector at the far end. With a final shriek of torn metal, the gantry tore away from its supports, the collector turning to fall into the lava. Obi-wan and Anakin found themselves grasping the railings on the underside of the gantry as it rose to vertical underneath them, but still they fought as they climbed to the top.

What remained of the gantry fell over a waterfall of lava with Anakin and Obi-wan clinging onto it for dear life. At the bottom, Obi-wan spied a worker droid floating over the lava's surface and leaped onto it. In a similar move, Anakin leaped onto another droid as they gantry sank into the lava flow.

They continued to trade blows when the worker droids hovered close enough, until the added weight of Obi-wan above caused the hovering droid to sink into lava. He quickly guided what remained of the droid close enough to the banks of the lava river for him to leap to safety as the droid finally sank into the lava flow.

Talia's opponent had lost his attacking strength with the loss of his hand, so was hard-pressed against the onslaught of her precise attacks as he attempted to defend. They had fought back onto a narrow walkway as he backed away from her. Finding himself at the end, with a lava flow below and nowhere to run, he had only one option remaining.

He leaped high over Talia as she ducked and attempted to remove his legs, cutting the support cables with his staff, before driving the end into the walkway. Talia rose and cocked an eyebrow at his sudden acrobatics, as he depressed a button on his staff. The tip driven into the walkway exploded, shearing off the walkway below her, which began to fall towards the lave flow.

At the last moment, Talia leaped to beside the remaining walkway behind the guard, driving her sword into the side of the walkway and using it to flip her up behind him. In the same move, she extended her other sword in front of her as she pulled the other free before she landed, driving the other through the centre of the surprised guard's chest. He staggered backwards, pulling the blade free from his chest before falling into the lava below. After a quick salute with her sword, she turned and ran towards where she sensed Anakin and Obi-wan were fighting.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"Don't try it."

Anakin could only glare at Obi-wan's challenge, as if it was some attempt to lure him into a trap. As he stood on the worker droid as it slowly sank into the lava near the river's edge, a moment of inspiration of his next move entered his mind.

Smirking confidently, he drew on the power of the Dark side to hone his actions as he channelled his energy into his legs before he leaped.

Obi-wan sensed the sudden build-up of Force energy surrounding his former padawan and brought his lightsaber up into his trademark ready stance.

Anakin leaped high over Obi-wan, spinning over his head as he brought his saber to stab downwards at Obi-wan's chest. His blade was knocked aside, as was his quick slash to Obi-wan's stomach before his feet landed on the firm soil.

Seeing that he had lost his advantage of being on the higher ground, Obi-wan quickly gathered the Force and span into a roundhouse kick, catching Anakin in the chest and throwing him back up the bank onto level ground.

After quickly rubbing his head where it had impacted the rocky wall, grunting in annoyance at the small lump, Anakin gathered his focus and attacked Obi-wan with renewed energy when he had joined him on the walkway alongside the river. They parried, thrust and blocked each other as they fought back towards the landing platforms.

From her vantage point near the landing platforms, Talia could see the two struggling against each other as they fought back into the inside of the outpost. Seeing no easy access to that area from her perch on the thin maintenance walkway, she spied a long, thick pipe connecting one of the towers to a structure located on one of the canyon walls. It was some distance above her but travelled between her walkway and the area Obi-wan and Anakin had entered.

Raising her right arm, she closed her eyes and strained her brow in concentration. As a reward, a long blade the width of her thumb extended from below her wrist, and with a loud blast of vapour and screech of metal, it flew from her wrist to embed itself through the pipe, leaving a trail of shining metal back into her wrist.

Cocking a small smile, she threw herself from the walkway, twisting gracefully in the air as she passed over the river of lava separating them, before landing expertly on the walkway outside the entrance to the outpost. Re-calling her blade, she wiped the blood from her wrist after it had retracted back into her arm and raced after Anakin and Obi-wan.

Finding himself back-pedalling into a large darkened room, Obi-wan could only see Anakin when the flash of their blades locking illuminated his contorted face, his rage-filled eyes shining eerily. His body tiring, he increasingly drew on the Force to help his strained muscles to block the thrashing swings of Anakin's blade. Resorting back to the defensive, Obi-wan pleaded with the Force to allow him a quick respite, but was answered with a searing pain from his left arm. Anakin had glanced his shoulder with the tip of his blade on the last strike, causing him to cry out in pain.

Anakin could only smirk triumphantly as his old mentor backed away from him, holding his shoulder with his free hand, his lightsaber hilt trembling in his grip. His voice was dripping with the evil of the power that corrupted him.

"Can you see now how weak the Light side is? Drop your saber Obi-wan, you've lost and I've been looking forward to this."

It was then that realisation came to Obi-wan, he had duelled Master Dooku before he had left the Order and every time he had, he marvelled at how precise his form was. Even when corrupted by the Dark side, his mastery of his form still enticed his opponent into critical mistakes for him to take advantage of. And now knowledge of those duels returned to him.

Standing defiantly and holding his injured arm behind his back, he elegantly twirled his blade before falling into Dooku's ready salute.

Anakin snarled as he recognised Obi-wan's stance, the mocking sight of it brought memories of how he had over-confidently fought and lost his arm to Dooku all those years ago. Enraged, Anakin screamed in fury as he hacked mercilessly at Obi-wan, determined to cleave him in half.

Obi-wan let the Force guide him as he effortlessly blocked and parried every single powerful attack away from him. Anakin seemed to become more and more enraged as he attacked with increasingly strong blows. But Obi-wan restrained himself from lashing back, content with simply knocking aside Anakin's heavy two-handed blows with his single-handed style, _Dooku's style_ he reminded himself.

Blinded with rage, Anakin swung high, intending to remove Obi-wan's head from his shoulders. Seeing his opportunity, Obi-wan dropped to the floor and kicked Anakin's leg out from under him. As Anakin fell, Obi-wan flicked his blade to catch Anakin's mechanical arm, severing it just after where Anakin had originally lost it. With a small explosion, the hand fell away from Anakin, still grasping his saber hilt as it clattered across the floor.

Anakin kicked out at Obi-wan, knocking him backwards onto the floor. They both jumped back up, Anakin's left hand extended at Obi-wan. Obi-wan's blade extinguished as he was lifted from the floor, grasping his neck as he struggled for air. Anakin glared in fury as he used the Dark side of the Force to flow through him to squeeze the life from Obi-wan.

So captured by squeezing the life from his former master, Anakin jumped in shock as a pair of strong arms wrapped around his shoulders, followed by a sharp blinding pain in his neck. He screamed in agony as he thrashed against the arms restraining him. Obi-wan climbed from the floor rubbing his neck and thanking the Force for being able to breathe again, his mouth swung agape as his eyes were drawn to Anakin's screaming.

Talia looked back at Obi-wan, her eyes warning him to stay back as her sharp fangs drove deeper into Anakin's neck. Anakin screamed again in pain, before his eyes rolled back into his head and he collapsed into Talia's arms. Withdrawing her fangs from his neck, which was now a bloodied mess, she gently guided him to lie on the floor before tearing a strip of cloth from his tunic and wrapping it around the wound.

Obi-wan stared in shock, before words gasped his lips.

"What have you done to him?"

"I drank enough to paralyse him, he will be fine in a few days, I apologise but I had to end it quickly."

Obi-wan could only slowly nod in acceptance, before she helped him to his feet. Waving her away, assuring her he could walk on his own, he turned to help her pick the unconscious form of Anakin up and carry him.

Once they were outside, they carried Anakin up to the landing platform where they had left Padme unconscious. Talia gave Anakin to Obi-wan as they heard a loud scream from the platform. She ran and leaped up onto it, to see Padme crawling back across the platform, what remained of a Royal Guard crawling with his hands towards her. Talia cursed as she recognised the wound on it's back and ran at it, her sword leaped into her hand and ignited as she rolled between them and removed it's head in one quick move.

Padme screamed in horror again as Talia's blood-stained face turned to check on her. Deactivating her sword, she turned to Obi-wan for some help calming her down as he staggered with Anakin towards them. The sight of Anakin unconscious quickly pulled Padme from her hysterics and she practically scrambled from the floor towards Obi-wan to help him.

Relieved, Talia turned back to the _Star_ which was hovering nearby and motioned for it to come down to pick them up.

As a concerned Padme took Anakin's other side, Obi-wan took the opportunity to whisper to her.

"You wouldn't have a handkerchief by any chance?"

Padme nodded dumbly as she handed him one, which he gave to Talia as they joined her. Talia nodded in thanks as she wiped her chin of Anakin's bloodstains.

"I had best introduce the pair of you, Senator Padme Naberrie, meet Jedi Guardian Talia Shirikari, she came to help us bring Anakin back."

Talia gave Padme a formal bow as the Star hovered over to them and lowered its boarding ramp. Motioning them inside, Talia resumed the controls and guided the ship away from the platform as the mining station continued to fall into the lava flow.

Padme and Obi-wan carried Anakin into the small medical bay and strapped him securely to the bunk, Padme nervously checking over his life-signs as she carefully watched Aria's small sinister-looking spider droids hooking him into various life-support devices. She yelped in surprise as Aria's soft voice relayed Anakin's condition to her.

"_Knight Skywalker has been stabilised and is beginning to recover, Master Kenobi, may I tend to your wound please?"_

Nodding his thanks to the spider droids, Obi-wan sat in a chair as one of them climbed up his arm to analyse his shoulder. He winced in pain as the droid carefully pulled the singed cloth from the wound to examine it. After a moment, the droid climbed down and retrieved a small device from the medical supplies, before returning to his shoulder and spraying it on it.

Obi-wan at once marvelled that the pain was gone and thanked the little droid, which nodded and returned to help its companions with Anakin. The other droids were removing the cloth from around Anakin's neck and cleaning around the wound, which Padme noticed and recoiled in shock, her hand clasped over her mouth.

She shrieked when she noticed Talia standing behind her, to which she cocked an eyebrow at her behaviour. Talia walked over to the console above Anakin's bunk and adjusted a few of the controls on the hologram readout.

"How are we Aria?"

"_We are on course out of the Mustafar system, we should be able to jump to light-speed shortly. I am currently extracting your neuro-toxin from Knight Skywalker's circulatory system. _"

Padme regained her composure enough to question her.

"What did you do to him? What is that wound on his neck? That was his blood on your face wasn't it?"

Talia sighed and crossed her arms over her chest, turning back to face her, she replied with all the honesty she could.

"I did what I had to, I had no choice but to try to paralyse him, it was quite a risk but I had to stop him from killing Obi-wan before returning to you."

Padme looked over to Obi-wan for some recognition from him, which was returned with a solemn nod. Releasing her misgivings with a deep breath, she turned back to Talia.

"Then I must thank you, for saving not just my husband, but Obi-wan as well."

Talia nodded in acceptance.

"You should make yourselves ready for the jump, Obi-wan could you show the Senator to a suitable bedbefore joining me at the front?"

Obi-wan guided Padme to the crew quarters, where she quickly found a comfortable bed to rest on before he joined Talia at the forward control room. Resuming his familiar console, he quickly checked over the status of everyone, knowing that Aria had probably done that for him already. Talia had attached herself into her control yokes and was now co-ordinating with Aria on their destination.

Apparently, while Talia and Obi-wan were dueling Anakin and his Royal Guards, Aria had intercepted a transmission from a Senator Organa and Master Yoda on a suitable meeting place near the Kothlis system and had begun programming the coordinates for the returning jump.

With everyone now ready, Talia activated the jump-drive and the portal into hyperspace swallowed them with a flash of energy.

Palpatine could only seethe in anger. He had found the perfect apprentice among the Jedi, spent years constructing careful plans to guide him to the Dark side. All of it to be ruined by the sudden appearance of this Draconian woman to snatch his apprentice away from him. He scratched his leg in annoyance, _That little green troll will pay dearly one day._ He smiled evilly, the Jedi were wanted across the galaxy now, they had no where to hide, soon, his apprentice would return to him.

An evil laugh filled the Senate chamber.

As the vortex of hyperspace swirled around the _Star_, Padme was in the galley organising her conflicting feelings. Her love for Anakin was still there, but the shadow of doubt of what he had turned into and done loomed over them. She was still relieved that he was recovering, her only real struggle she could see is what would happen when he woke up.

Her sip of tea turned into a choking gulp when Talia entered the small galley in search of food. _Must be a nervous disposition_ Talia wondered, as she sat down with a small plate of even smaller quantity of vegetables.

Padme carefully decided to start some conversation.

"You don't seem to eat much?"

Talia slowly swallowed her mouthful before glancing up at her.

"I have already eaten today, I am not very hungry."

The tension in the room seemed to increase as the silence dwindled on. Soon, they were both finished, Talia reached for Padme's cup as she rose to return her plate to the food dispenser. Padme shied away before understanding hit her, so she offered her the cup with a nod in thanks. Talia smiled slightly as she left Padme in the galley with her thoughts.

Finding Obi-wan snoring on one of the bunks in the crew quarters, she stood in the entrance to the room, smiling serenely at him, before walking into her quarters for some rest.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Obi-wan found himself walking aimlessly through the corridor of the Jedi Temple. The lights that lined and dimly illuminated this particular corridor surrounded him in the ambience of the late night. Gently stretching out his connection to the Force, he could feel the occupants of each room as he passed them, sleeping soundly.

A pang of envy glanced into the back of his mind as he withdrew his connection from within those rooms and continued walking as quietly as he could muster. Folding his arms across his chest as he continued towards the place in the Temple that he felt most relaxed, he wondered about his predicament.

Entering the Room of a Thousand Fountains, Obi-wan found he was unable to stop himself from marvelling at the simple beauty of the landscape before him. The trees, streams and gardens oozed a sense of serenity that helped to calm even the most troubled mind and he was no stranger to this.

After finding a comfortable bench next to one of the streams, he sat and began to ponder on his options. At 12 years old and despite numerous attempts to become Qui-Gon's padawan learner, he was at a loss what to do to earn that position. Despite the support of his friends, Bant and Siri, Obi-wan still felt that his destiny was inevitably going to carry him towards the Agricultural Corps and no hope of becoming a Jedi Knight. His thoughts drifted towards considering leaving the Order and helping people his own way, but this was quickly dismissed as he had no where else to go that came to mind

Laying his face in hands and sighing in frustration at an answer that still eluded him, he was startled from his sadness by a gentle chuckle. Glancing around, his eyes widened when he saw a pair of scarlet eyes, their pupils vertical slits, softly glowing amongst the shadows between the bushes. With another chuckle, they closed and disappeared.

Suppressing his anxiety that rolled within him, he found his curiosity had gained control and was forcing him to crawl along the grass to enter where he had seen the pair of eyes. Finding nothing inside, he began to turn to leave, abandoning his thoughts of padawanship in place of a comfortable bed, until a flicker of the Force stopped him. It felt strange to him, a presence had brushed his mind, the Force signature it had carried was clear to him, but when he responded in the Force, it had disappeared.

Puzzled, Obi-wan began to crawl out of the bushes, but his right hand had fell on something small and hard. The shadows were too dark for him to see it properly, so he held on to it until he could inspect it underneath one of the lamps near the stream. Turning it over in his hand, the stone was a deep ruby colour the size of his thumb. Using the Force over the stone gave him nothing but more questions, the stone felt that it was there and rippled within the Force, but it also felt elusive, as if it wasn't totally there.

_What are you?_ He thought, and to his surprise, the stone responded to him with a brief burst of scarlet hue, glowing from deep within before returning to its original deep ruby colour. Glancing around and confirming that no one else was in the garden, Obi-wan pocketed the stone and resigned himself to investigate it in the morning.

Talia sat next to Obi-wan on the bed as he gently awoke from his sleep. The duel with Anakin had exhausted him and she had felt that a good breakfast would help him recover. Obi-wan glanced groggily up at her as she smiled down at him, his eyes taking in her smile before he noticed that she had changed into Jedi robes, but were black with a scarlet over-robe.

"Enjoy your rest? You were sleeping so soundly I was having difficulty waking you."

"Oh, sorry about that, I don't normally sleep that deeply."

"It is fine, we will be joining with Master Yoda soon and I wished to inspect your wound, I also brought you some breakfast."

Obi-wan's stomach gurgled as it recognised the thought of food. He blushed in embarrassment as Talia chuckled softly at him. She stood up to let him swing his legs over the side of the bunk, his eyes glancing at the meal hungrily before remembering his shoulder. Pulling his tunic aside to expose the wound, Talia sat next to him and began examining it with her soft fingers. He winced as a twang of pain through his shoulder brought him uncomfortably awake before she withdrew her fingers from the deep burn and pulled his tunic back over it.

"Healing nicely, it will be a few hours before we arrive, I shall go check on Knight Skywalker and Senator Naberrie while you eat."

Nodding in thanks before she left the quarters, Obi-wan began eating his food, wondering how cereal could taste so good, but perhaps his hunger was influencing that. When he had finished, one of Aria's spider droids happened along to collect the empty tray before disappearing into the corridor and leaving Obi-wan with his thoughts.

Reaching inside his tunic, he retrieved the small stone from the pocket he had stitched inside it. Rolling it around in his hand, he remembered all his efforts to identify it over the years. Remembering his lessons of the Sith and how they used red crystals in their lightsabers to produce their red blades, he had hesitated to ask any Jedi in case they enquired into how he had come across it. In any case, the stone by itself could not harm anyone he assumed, so he began his research into it on his own.

Realisation hit him as hard as a blaster bolt, _That laugh? It can't be…_he asked himself as the memory of the dream came back to him. The dream itself was a memory long ago, he had not had it in many years, but that soft chuckle and those scarlet eyes were now very familiar to him. Tightening his grip around the stone, he resigned himself to ask Talia on this later. Meditation would help him to focus his mind and it was a habit of his after breakfast for as long as he could remember, he certainly needed it and was thankful for Qui-Gon for drumming it into him during their time together. Smiling at that memory, Obi-wan relaxed into position on the bunk and closed his eyes.

"Sir, an unidentified ship has appeared in system and is on course directly for us, shall I raise the shields?"

Bail Organa stroked his beard in contemplation, his eyes resting on the screen as he came to a decision. With a nod, the lieutenant brought the Corvette to combat readiness and trained the pair of upper and lower turbolaser turrets toward the intruding ship. Fighting down the nervous twitching in his stomach, he gave his orders with as much confidence as he could gather.

"Helm, ready for evasive. Gunners, charge your weapons and wait for my order."

The bridge crew tensed, anticipating the coming battle, each one made a silent prayer to themselves as the ship on the radar neared them. The hiss of the door to the bridge, followed by a steady tapping of a walking stick heralded the arrival of the wisened Jedi Master. Yoda slowly walked over to the scanner station to identify the ship, before turning to Bail.

"Lower your shields, friends they are."

Bail relaxed and nodded towards his lieutenant, sighs could be heard from the rest of the bridge crew as the tension looming over the bridge disappeared. The comm officer spoke up to relay to Bail.

"We are receiving a comm request from the ship."

"On screen."

On the panel before him, Talia's face appeared, startling Bail slightly before he composed himself.

"This is the cruiser _Oni's Star_, requesting permission to dock, I have Senator Naberrie and two wounded on board, one is minor."

"This is Corvette _Tantive IV_, permission granted _Oni's Star_, we will have medical teams waiting for you."

Turning off the comm panel, Bail turned to his Jedi friend, who smiled in return before they both walked down to the cargo area.

Talia swung the _Star_ underneath the Corvette to allow a small boarding tube to attach to the docking ring that revealed itself at the top of the hull section. Instructing Aria to remain docked, she left the cockpit and helped Obi-wan carry the unconscious form of Anakin to the airlock with Padme in tow. Once on board the _Tantive,_ She informed the medical crew of Anakin's condition before joining Obi-wan in greeting Master Yoda.

"Master, I am unsure of how to proceed with Anakin now, he was still under the influence of the Dark side when we subdued him. When he awakes I am not certain what he will do and Palpatine will surely hunt us down to retrieve him."

Yoda nodded as he absorbed this information. Their options since the attack on the Order had dwindled as time passed.

"Care for the wounded we must, then into hiding to recover, we must go."

Bail chose that moment to join them from the medical bay.

"Knight Skywalker is under sedatives for the time being, but Padme is dangerously close to giving birth. There is a nearby medical station on the neutral asteroid Polis Massa that is far better equipped for giving birth than we are, I would like to take her there. They may be able to care for Knight Skywalker there for the time being."

"Then to Polis Massa, we must now go."

"I shall meet you there, both our ships cannot enter hyperspace together, there is too much difference between them."

With that, Talia turned and walked back to the boarding lift. As she entered it and reached for the controls, Obi-wan pushed his arm out onto the door. He stared seriously into her eyes.

"I'm coming with you, in case something might happen."

Talia nodded and both of them were lowered down to the _Star_. As Obi-wan undocked the boarding ramp from their end, Talia pulled the ship away from the Corvette and it soon streaked into hyperspace. After plotting the course, Talia activated the jump-drive and they slipped after the _Tantive_. After a short hop through hyperspace, they both arrived in system. The _Tantive_ cruised towards the asteroid surface before docking with the medical station.

Talia guided the _Star_ into orbit above the station, scanning for any signs of fighters until she was satisfied. Leaving Aria to scan continually for hostile intruders, she left the cockpit and went to find Obi-Wan. After a short search, she found him seated at the table in the galley, a cup of tea steaming in front of him as he motioned for her to sit down. Taking the seat across the table from him, she leaned back and crossed her arms over her chest.

"And the real reason for joining me was?"

Obi-wan fished inside his tunic before retrieving the stone. Holding it between his thumb and index finger, he held it up towards her, noting her eyes widening at the sight of it. Slowly, a small smile found her lips. He decided to coerce her further.

"What is this?"

She reached down to her free one of her sword hilts from her thigh before holding it up next to him, the top of the hilt level with the stone between his fingers, the smile widening into a grin.

"Seem similar?"

Obi-wan compared the two stones, noticing that they were identical, before Talia rested her hilt on the table before him. He picked the hilt up and studied them in more detail, before handing it back to her.

"The stone you have is a Draconis control crystal, it is used for many things, from regulating the power crystal in my swords, to stabilising the energies produced from the drive matrix of this very ship."

"Then it was you that gave this to me, but how? and why?"

"How is quite simple, while I was resting I could project myself through the Force, to see how the Jedi evolved as time went by and to guide young ones such as yourself, Why, I shall have to show you."

With that, Talia rose from her seat, motioning for him to follow. She guided him to her quarters and smiled as he nervously joined her there. She invited him to sit on the side of her bed as she retrieved a holo-frame from nearby, before sitting next to him.

"The young man on the floor, he is Knight Aren Lain, the woman posing over him is Master Ara Nomura, she was his master. The man with his arms crossed is Master Jar-Cor Demia and between myself and him is his old padawan and your ancestor, Rai-Ell Kenobi."

"How old is this picture, may I ask?"

"Seven hundred years, roughly."

Obi-wan was slightly shocked, he knew of families that were strong with the Force and sent their children to train at the Temple and his was one of them, but never had he thought it went back so far. He managed to compose himself.

"How does this answer why you gave me the crystal?"

Talia pressed on a control on the holo-frame, which zoomed the picture in towards Rai-Ell and Talia. Hung around his neck, a small chain could be seen, hanging from it was the ruby crystal Obi-wan held in his hand. Talia captured Obi-wan's eyes before she responded with one of her serene smiles. She covered his hand that was resting on his knee with her own, the crystal held in it, as she stared into his eyes.

"Because it belongs to you."

_"Mistress, apologies for interrupting, but there is a message from the medical station."_

"Thank you Aria, we shall take it here."

She stood and walked over to her desk, a hologram appearing on it as she sat down in her chair. Obi-wan joined her as Bail's face appeared on the projection.

"Master Kenobi, Guardian Shirikari, I bring news of Padme going into labour and Knight Skywalker is beginning to show signs of awakening. It may be best if you joined us down here."

"Agreed, we shall be there at once Senator, _Star_ out."

Talia deactivated the hologram and nodded at Obi-wan before walking out of her quarters. She quickly resumed her controls in the cockpit and guiding the ship towards the docking bay on the asteroid. Obi-wan sat back down on her bed with the holo-frame still in his hand. Noticing a small button in the top corner, he pressed it and the holo changed to show the picture of his ancestor kissing Talia on the cheek. Not knowing what to make of that image and considering his curiosity to have lead him too far, Obi-wan changed the picture back and placed the holo-frame back on her desk before leaving her quarters for the forward control room.

As they landed in the hanger area, Talia and Obi-wan both sprinted down the boarding ramp and towards the complex entrance. They could both feel Anakin's presence several levels above them, radiating confusion into the Force. Obi-wan quickly commed Bail, notifying him that they were on their way to visit Anakin, to which Bail wished them luck.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

The bar was just the same as any other. Dark, musty and filth on every surface. Rolling her eyes slowly, scanning the other occupants as they huddled in booths, some searching for threats while clutching their meagre possessions, others merely attempting to keep warm for the night.

Stirring the concoction contained within the dirty glass in front of her, she debated whether or not to taste it while she waited for her contact to arrive. Glancing at the small chronograph on her wrist, he was already half an hour late now.

"Are you going to drink that or not?"

Just inside her field of vision as she stared at the drink, she could see the stomach of the annoying man, just before his smell invaded her nostrils. His tunic stained beyond any recognition of its original colour as it strained to hold in the rolls of fat that rolled with his every movement. Wrinkling her nose slightly in disgust, she slowly raised her head to look into his eyes with her own.

She smirked as he flinched slightly, before turning away from her to resume his task of cleaning the mugs. Deciding to search around outside the bar for her contact, she rose and tossed a few credits onto the surface before turning for the door. She could feel the bartenders sneering gaze boring into the back of her head as she walked back through the doors.

She stood near the door as she looked around the mess of a street. Long ago, this asteroid colony had been one of the refuelling stations for the convoys of mining ships that passed from the mining stations further in-system. With the mines now abandoned, this colony had fallen into decay, now only serving as a magnet for the less-than-disreputable or those not wanting to be found.

The sound of blaster-fire filled her sensitive ears, alerting her other senses into searching for threats. Pin-pointing the location of the sound, she took off in a run towards the alley further down the street, her brown cloak billowing behind her as she sprinted. Turning into the dark alley, her eyes recognised the Rodian leant against the far wall, clutching his abdomen. Running to his side to help him, his dark orb-like eyes seemed to light up as he recognised her.

"_I'm sorry, but it looks like I can't take you."_

Hurt filled her eyes as she stared at the dying Rodian she held in her arms. He began weakly fumbling in his trouser pocket until he produced a small keycard.

"_Here, take it, she's yours."_

He let out his remaining breath as she slowly took the keycard from his hand, his body hanging limply in her arms as a tear rolled down her cheek. Her amber, feline eyes widened as a loud click filled the dark alley. Whirling around, she extended the blade from her wrist to lash out at the blaster, sending the front half of it clattering into a puddle on the floor as she extended her other wrist blade into her attackers shoulder. Baring her small fangs, she snarled at her opponent.

"WHO SENT YOU?"

The man only smirked cockily, before he bit down into his mouth and became as limp as her friend slumped against the wall. Growling, she pulled her blade free from his shoulder before retracting them both back into her wrists, pausing to wipe the mans blood from it with a cloth from her bag, before wiping away her own blood from around the closing slits in her wrists.

Sighing, she glanced down at the keycard in her hand, _Docking Bay 12, my escape from this hellhole_. Smiling she began walking towards the docking area.

In short, Anakin felt terrible. His limbs felt heavy and unresponsive, he felt drained and exhausted, he barely had the strength to call on the Force to help him recover. Only the love he had for his wife kept him fighting for consciousness, but even as he fought his eyes to focus on the world around him, he felt a presence in the back of his mind. It wasn't through the Force, he realised, but within him somehow. Pushing that thought aside, he regained enough control over his eyes to make out the medical droid tending to him.

It seemed to say something to him, but he couldn't make it out. Continuing his efforts, he managed to restore his hearing to a decent level.

"night…walker…ow..you…feel.."

The words slurred around in his mind as it struggled to understand what it was saying, as if time was moving too quickly and too slowly at the same time. Slowly, he managed to strain out a slow answer for the droid.

"Been better, where is Padme?"

"She is in the maternity ward and doing well."

Heaving a sigh of relief, Anakin relaxed into his bed, when the door to the room hissed open to reveal Obi-wan screeching to a halt inside, his lightsaber hilt ready in his hand. Obi-wan glared at him threateningly, his finger on his hilt's activator button. Anakin could only stare at his old mentor in confusion, the shock of the sight before him dragging his mind from its sleep, until his eyes widened when he saw a woman with white hair and wearing scarlet and black robes walk over to his mentor's side to lay a hand on his shoulder. He watched Obi-wan look into her eyes before relaxing and lowering his weapon.

"Master? What is going on?"

Obi-wan replied slightly shakily.

"Anakin, what do you remember?"

Anakin felt puzzled at that. He called on the aid of the Force to help him gather what he could remember. It still felt fragmented to him, but hopefully his friend could help to fill the gaps.

"I remember being there with Master Windu and Chancellor Palpatine when they fought, I watched them struggle, then the rest is just a blur until now. Please tell me what happened?"

Obi-wan sighed, before pulling up a chair to sit beside Anakin's bed. Talia stood next to Obi-wan, her arms crossed over her chest as she looked down on Anakin, her expression neutral. It was Obi-wan's responsibility to inform his friend.

"There is no easy way to tell you this, Anakin, but you fell to the Dark side of the Force. You killed Master Windu, then became Palpatine's apprentice before helping him to wipe out all Jedi. Palpatine has declared us to be traitors to the Empire and the troops are to kill us on sight. We found you on Mustafar where you almost killed Padme before you turned on us. Myself and Guardian Shirikari here managed to stop you and here we are."

Grief hit Anakin like a runaway speeder. He collapsed back into his bed, his eyes wide and his face as pale as the room around him. Before his eyes, visions of him slaughtering his fellow Jedi, padawans and younglings alike, assaulted him from deep within in his memory. He struggled to fathom what he had done, in his heart he knew he deserved to die for that alone, but the added thought of him almost single-handedly bringing the Jedi Order to its knees, it was too much. He lent forward, resting his face in his hands and just let his tears flow from his eyes.

Talia and Obi-wan watched him as he sobbed into his hands, neither of them could detect any trace of the Dark side of the Force from him, only waves of grief and pain rolled from him like ripples on a pond's surface. After what seemed like an eternity, Anakin slowly stopped sobbing, remaining with his face hidden in his hands. Talia slowly walked over and sat next to him on the bed, extending a hand to rest on his shoulder comfortingly. Anakin looked up at her, his eyes full of tears that threatened to rush down his cheeks at any moment.

"Now do you understand the power of the Dark side, the power that causes only pain to others in its selfish desire for absolute control?"

Anakin slowly nodded.

Obi-wan placed his hand to hold Anakin's arm, attracting his attention.

"As I said to you on Mustafar, you allowed Palpatine to twist your mind until it fit in with his plan for the galaxy. He is responsible for all of this, not you. You can fight with us against him for the peace and freedom of the Republic."

Anakin sat still, looking at neither of them, as he thought about this. He blamed himself more than anyone over what had happened. But there was truth to Obi-wan's words, Palpatine's actions up to the point where he revealed himself as a Sith Lord proved as much. He knew in his heart that he couldn't let Palpatine cast an evil shadow over the galaxy and he knew that this was the tip of the iceberg of his schemes.

Obi-wan drew something from his robes and placed it in front of Anakin on his bed. Anakin's lightsaber.

"You will need this."

Anakin reached for it and turned it over in his hands. He suddenly noticed that his right hand was different from before. While his hand should have been skeletal and gold, this was almost completely different. He still had the gold-plated connection onto the stump of his right elbow, but after that, it was no longer skeletal, as if it was covered with dark-grey plating resembling muscles, overlaid with flowing white armour sections. On the back of his hand, there were two long, rounded scarlet gems embedded into the plate. The most noticeable difference to him was that he could feel the weight of his lightsaber as he held it in this alien hand. He looked to Obi-wan for an explanation, only for Obi-wan's eyes to redirect him to the woman sitting next to him.

"When I felt the Dark side receding from you, I had Aria construct that for you, to replace the one you lost."

Nodding in some understanding, Anakin flexed his new hand, which moved easily and silently, unlike his old one. Talia smiled in satisfaction before he returned to study his lightsaber.

"I can't bring myself to use this, not after what I have done with it, the pain I've caused. I've decided to build a new one, to help me to redeem myself."

Obi-wan reached out with the Force to him, and to his thanks he felt only focus and clarity from Anakin. Reaching down into his utility belt, he brought his hand once more to rest on Anakin's bedside.

"Qui-Gon would have wanted you to have this, when the time was right."

Withdrawing his hand, a small emerald crystal rested in its place against the white hospital sheets. Anakin looked at Obi-wan puzzled, to which he only nodded in recognition. Anakin held the crystal in his hand, turning it over and examining it, realising that this was the crystal that resided in Qui-Gon's lightsaber hilt, the crystal of a Jedi Master.

Obi-wan's comm-link beeped. Answering it quickly, he found the rushed voice of Bail.

"Padme is going into labour, is everything alright up there?"

"Yes, we will be there as soon as we can, tell her Anakin is fine now."

"I shall, hurry Obi-wan."

Closing his comm-link, Obi-wan looked over to Anakin in time for him to start throwing off the sheets and reach for his clothes.

"Coming along?"

"At the minute, the Republic Army couldn't stop me from seeing her."

Talia grinned as Obi-wan chuckled, before they both left to stand outside the door to wait for him.

After repeated attempts to continue on her way towards the Inner Territories, the hyperdrive had finally coughed and died near an orbital casino station on Karis 4. She had tried kicking it, swearing at it and throwing tools at it to no avail, it refused to respond to her. Growling in frustration, she guided the ship towards the casino, hopefully they had a repair bay she could borrow, but with few credits to spare she would have to carry out all the work herself.

Guiding the ship into the hanger and extending the landing struts, the ship gently hovered over the hanger floor just as the power generator decided to join the hyperdrive, causing the ship to slam unceremoniously onto the floor with a thundering crash. She took a deep breath and released her frustration, before storming down the boarding ramp, ignoring the complaints of the deck officer as she walked into the complex. Right now, her options were limited to finding herself a new ship, or at least another way on her journey.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Palpatine sat staring out across the cityscape that filled the Coruscanti horizon. Night had just fallen, the remaining light from the sun illuminating one of the orbiting moons as it lingered near the horizon. Around him, signs of the recent duel between him and the late Jedi Master Windu were still scorched into the scarlet walls and floor of his office, although the window had been replaced some time earlier.

The door hissed as it allowed the black-robed figure into his office, its heavy boots thumping on the carpeted floor as it strode to the centre of the room. Palpatine smiled evilly as he turned his chair to face the figure, which now kneeled in respect towards him.

"I have a mission for you."

The hooded figure gave a single, slow nod.

"Go to the asteroid Polis Massa, there you will find Skywalker and Kenobi. Kill them. A woman is also with them, bring her and the wife of Skywalker to me."

"_Yesss, my lord…_"

The eerie whisper rippled with the taint of the Dark side of the Force, bringing a satisfied, but evil smile once more to Palpatine's lips.

"Now go."

The figure stood abruptly before striding out of the room as Palpatine turned back to the cityscape as the first stars could be seen in the night sky. Tapping on a panel on his chair, a holo-screen appeared beside him. In its centre, the security recording he had received from Polis Massa played on it, until it paused to show Kenobi and the unknown woman running out of a dagger-shaped ship his commander had reported to him.

Pressing another control on his panel, the image zoomed in to her pale face, her red eyes and long fangs clearly visible, as her white hair billowed behind her as she ran. Palpatine's eyes narrowed as he thought on this, something stirred in his mind, something he had read long ago in one of Darth Plagueis's journals.

_Interesting_, he thought, _this may prove more of a test than I had thought_.

Palpatine chuckled evilly as a smaller holo-screen showed the black figure striding up the boarding ramp of the black Sith Infiltrator stored in one of his hidden hangers.

Padme beamed as she held her daughter, Leia, in her arms. Next to her, Anakin stood holding Luke as Obi-wan looked down on the baby boy, a proud smile spread across his face as he held his old apprentice's shoulder in a brotherly gesture. Across the room from them, Talia stood next to Yoda as they both looked on at the happy family. Without turning to him, she spoke low enough for only his sensitive ears could hear her.

"The Force is unusually strong with him, to return from the dark side in the way that he did, it has never happened before to my knowledge."

"Correct you are, but action now this Sith lord would anticipate."

Yoda looked back over to the happy family.

"Gather our strength we must, if we are to face this evil again."

"In secret?"

Yoda nodded.

Talia closed her eyes and thought hard on her next decision. There was no doubt that this Sith lord had spies throughout the galaxy, and that their presence here would soon be discovered. If rebuilding the Jedi Order was among their priorities, then they could not reasonably do it while on the run. There was too much danger of being discovered if they all scattered and trained padawan learners while constantly journeying. To her, there was only one choice.

"There is one place where we can go, where we can train younglings and not be discovered."

Yoda looked up at her, noticing the frown on her brow as she opened her scarlet eyes again.

"Difficult for you to go back there, many memories you have of that place hmm?"

Talia slowly nodded.

"If it is to restore peace to the galaxy, then I am willing to take us there. It has been a long time, but it should be suitable for our needs."

Yoda smiled, he knew it was not easy for her, but she had granted them a light of hope in this dark time. He hobbled over to stand beside Obi-wan, earning their attention.

"If well enough Padme is to travel, we must leave soon or risk the Emperor finding us, we shall."

Padme nodded to her husband as Talia joined them.

"We should pack for a long journey, the newborns will require supplies that my ship doesn't carry, I also need to re-stock on a certain necessity so I will notify the medical teams."

Obi-wan managed to catch her as she turned for the door.

"Where exactly are we going, if the Emperor's forces cannot find us?"

Talia paused and turned her head back to them.

"Home."

With that, the doors closed behind her.

"_Damaged vessel, you are clear to dock for repairs on landing bay 4, maintenance teams are on standby if you require further assistance, welcome to Polis Massa_."

His hood still concealing his face, the figure deactivated the comm. transmission and guided the ship towards the hanger area. During the journey through hyperspace, he had taken the time to study the reports on each of his targets and the objectives of his mission. As he neared the landing bay, he recognised the white and chrome dagger-shaped ship from his reports, resting in several bays next to the one assigned to him. Skilfully landing his ship on the landing bay floor, he noted that there was a lack of personnel in this bay as he descended the boarding ramp. Discarding his hooded cloak, he pressed a small gem on his armoured glove and sunk into the shadows.

With the assistance of Bail, Talia had managed to gather enough supplies for the group, although her own supplies were considerably more difficult to gain. In the end, she managed to convince them to supply her with half of what she had asked for and was satisfied with that. It was likely that they had to stop along the way, in which case, the 200 litres of cloned blood she had acquired should manage to last her until then. She smiled as she remembered the look on the doctor's face as she placed the signed datapad before him, baffled to no end why she wanted so much and wasn't concerned what human-type it was. _I'll never grow tired of that_.

With the group now gathered and the newborns safe in their hover-cot, they made their way down to the docking area. Exiting the turbo-lift, they made their way across the hanger towards the _Oni's Star_. Obi-wan paused when he noticed the familiar shape of the ship parked a few bays along from them, dwarfed by the _Tantive IV_ next to it. The ship echoed familiarity to him, from a memory long ago…

…on Naboo.

He drew his lightsaber hilt as his eyes scanned the hanger.

"Anakin! Get Padme and the children on the ship!"

The Force screamed a warning as a crate began to levitate from nearby and was hurled towards him. Back-flipping from harm's way, his blade ignited from his hilt as he landed. Yoda and Talia drew their blades and formed a defensive circle as Anakin dragged Padme with one hand and the hover-cot with the other towards the boarding ramp.

With a loud screech of stressed metal, one of the huge maintenance arms from the hanger roof dropped, the clawed hand impacting itself into the floor that was previously occupied by the trio of Jedi. Obi-wan, Yoda and Talia narrowly managed to leap out of the way, Obi-wan jumping over an empty crate to cover from the metal debris as it rained down. Talia and Yoda had remained in the open area, Yoda shifting the debris to fall around them as Talia continued to scan for threats.

As the dust and debris settled, Obi-wan noticed a control gantry that rose from the floor some distance away near the wall of the hanger with a worker feverishly operating the controls for the maintenance arms. As the arm slowly began to rise from the crater of debris, Obi-wan set off in a mad dash for the control gantry.

Talia whirled around when she heard Yoda cry out as he was sent hurtling into a stack of crates. Her eyes widened when she detected that the Force was not used, until a detonator was sent bouncing towards her. With no time to push it away from her, she formed a shield with the Force to absorb the brunt of the blast, which knocked her back across the hanger floor. She used her momentum to flip backwards off the floor to avoid another hurtling crate just in time to see Yoda straining with his arms extended above him, using the Force to stop the huge maintenance arm from crushing him.

Sensing Yoda's struggle, Obi-wan didn't have time to gain control over the arm, so he threw his lightsaber hilt into the control console in front of the worker, engulfing the worker in an explosion. Recalling his hilt to his hand, he turned and ran back towards the fight.

The maintenance arm continued to force down on Yoda as sweat beaded on his green brow, although he could feel the pressure ease off, the tremendous weight of it kept him fixed in position as he maintained his focus. Talia aimed her arms above the maintenance arm and at the metal hand of the arm. With a blast of vapour, silver blades trailed from her wrists to wrap around the supporting gantry and around the mechanical wrist. Talia flew up to the supporting gantry as that blade withdrew into her wrist, once perched on the gantry, she pulled the other blade with all the strength she could gather. Taking the momentary lack of weight bearing down on him as his cue, Yoda leaped aside and sent a message through the Force to Talia once he was clear.

Talia staggered back across the wide gantry as her blade released its hold on the arm and retracted back into her wrist, causing it to crash into the hanger floor one final time. After the thundering boom had rang out across the hanger, she heard the familiar crackle of energy from the _Star_'s field emitters. Peering over the gantry's edge, she saw the _Star_ lurch from the hanger floor with Anakin laying suspended at the controls. The ship rolled and turned as he struggled to control it, one of the front bladed-sections clipping an over-turned crate.

Her sensitive ears heard a shuffle behind her. Whirling around, she briefly saw a blur move towards her, until her face was impacted with a blurred boot. She was thrown backwards and over the edge of the gantry. She bounced off a tall storage rack before hitting the floor. Groaning as she attempted to pick herself up, she felt a strong kick connect to her ribs, sending her skidding to the base of the storage rack. Laying still, she looked back towards where she had landed and could see nothing but Obi-wan helping Yoda to his feet in the background. Concentrating, her feline eyes narrowed into thin slits as her vision darkened to show only red hue of her surroundings. A figure she could only see as pure black held still over where she had previously fell from the gantry.

Her broken ribs ached from where she had been kicked, but the pain slowly began to recede as she shakily began to pick herself up from the floor again. In the corner of her eye, the figure silently stalked over to her until she was crouched on the floor. She saw him rear his leg back to kick her again, but when he threw his leg forward, her hand quickly shot up and caught his boot. Surprised, he threw a fist towards her head, only to have it swatted away and returned with a kick to his own face. He staggered back holding his face as Talia quickly jumped up and sent a roundhouse kick to his chest, sending him flying back over the hanger floor to land with a loud thud between her and her fellow Jedi.

_Get to the ship_, she sent to Obi-wan and Yoda through the Force as they began to make their way towards their attacker. She saw the Star begin to steady itself on the landing bay as Anakin managed to gain control, its boarding ramp still lowered. Grasping her hilts in her hands, their blades sang with deadly scarlet energy as they formed above each crystal. The figure rose from the floor, the darkness around him crackling as his features formed from the pure darkness. She let her vision return to normal, to see him wearing a black armoured suit with a dark, orb-shaped helmet that reflected the surrounding hanger. Two angled slits in the helmet could be seen in place of his eyes and he held a lightsaber hilt in his right hand.

With a _snap-hiss_ his orange blade ignited as he charged towards Talia, she twirled her hilts around her once in readiness as he began to unleash a barrage of quick, powerful strikes that left her concentrating on defending herself. Backing her towards a stack of nearby crates, he lunged at her but she managed to flip over his blade to land beyond his range. Extending his hand, lightening sprang from his palm, only to be absorbed by one of Talia's blades. Ceasing that attack, he gathered the Force around him to hurl whatever objects littered the area at her, only for her to dodge them as they came. Renewing his onslaught of quick strikes, he grew increasingly infuriated.

Obi-wan and Yoda climbed into their seats behind the cockpit, Obi-wan immediately readied the lower beam turret as Yoda turned his display to view the battle.

"Anakin, can you turn the ship so I can shoot him!"

Anakin's voice dripped of sarcasm over the comm.

"Oh I'm sorry Master, I forgot how easy this was."

Obi-wan rolled his eyes as Anakin lurched the ship around.

"A little more Anakin, just a little more."

Seeing her opening, Talia swatted his orange blade aside and kicked him in the ribs, the same side he had dealt her with. Groaning under his mask, he swung his blade in a wide arc in an attempt to remove her head. Talia ducked beneath it, twisting as she crouched, then jumped up and kicked him square between his shoulder blades. He slammed into the base of the storage rack as the _Star_'s lower turret opened fire on the rack's supports, reducing them to a molten mess. The rack heaved and groaned, before beginning its decent down on top of them. They both turned and ran from it, but her starting lead allowed her to get a running jump as she managed to clear the rack before it slammed down on top of their attacker.

Talia stumbled up the boarding ramp, closing it behind her as Anakin shakily pulled the _Star_ away from the hanger and into space. After switching with him, she guided the ship away from Polis Massa and through the asteroid field, before opening the portal into hyperspace.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Obi-wan sat down in his seat in the forward control room and massaged his bruised shoulder. It had been half an hour since they had jumped into hyperspace and he had spent the time with Anakin as they both checked over Padme and the babies. After thanking the Force that they were fine, he had found Yoda meditating on one of the bunks in the crew cabin. Deciding to leave them all some time to themselves, he had ventured forward to give himself a chance to think on this mysterious location, where they could be safe from Palpatine's strangle on the galaxy. He did not have much time to think though, when Aria's soft voice filled the room.

"_Master Kenobi, I fear something is wrong with milady, I am unable to gain a response from her_."

Obi-wan bolted out of his seat and almost ran into the door to the cockpit.

"Aria, open the door!"

With a hiss, the door parted open to allow Obi-wan inside. There, Talia was still suspended by the control yokes in the centre of the transparent bubble that formed the cockpit. Around them, the red-hued vortex of hyperspace slid past them, where wisps of energy came close, a crackle of energy passed from the field surrounding the ship into them and briefly illuminated the ship. His eyes stared at her, hanging limply by her arms and legs in the yokes in front of him, but beyond his reach.

"Some help please Aria!"

The yokes slowly retracted and brought her back to the ledge that Obi-wan was standing on. Cradling his arms under her, Aria released the restraints on the yokes, allowing him to carry her back through the control room and into the living area. Padme and Anakin's eyes widened in shock at the sight of him carrying her limp form. They both followed Obi-wan as he walked through into the small medical bay and placed her on the solitary bunk. The door hissed closed behind Yoda as he walked over to the bedside.

After he touched a few crystalline controls, a scanning beam passed over Talia, before spider droids scurried over her. Obi-wan grimaced when one opened her left eye and shined a light into it, the feline pupil of which had dilated much smaller than he had normally seen. A blue hologram was then projected over her displaying her injured ribs in flashing red with Aria providing specific details.

"_Three of her lower ribs are broken, the centre of which has shattered into four pieces_._ She has internal bleeding from that, with a cracked shoulder blade and collarbone_._ Her blood is showing early stages of haemoglobin degeneration, which indicates that her body is shutting down to preserve itself_."

Obi-wan crossed his arms in defeat.

"What can we do? We can't go to another medical facility without alerting Palpatine's forces. She needs help beyond anything we can do."

Yoda chuckled, drawing stares from everyone in the room. He walked over to a storage cabinet and pulled out several bags of the cloned blood from Polis Massa from it. Returning to the bed, he placed them on Talia's lap and turned to the others.

"Been through far worse she has, stand back you must, in her weakened state control herself she cannot."

The others nodded and withdrew to lean against the walls near the door. As soon as he was sure they were ready, Yoda turned and pierced the corner of one of the bags before walking quickly away from the bed to join the others in watching. The bag slowly leaked a small amount from its plastic wrapping, a drop running down its side.

Talia seemed to stir slightly, before her dazed eyes slowly opened. Sniffing the air, her eyes locked onto the bags sat on her lap, she quickly seized the one that was leaking and pulled it harshly to her face, biting down on it hard. Squirts of the red liquid sprayed out from the bag as her sharp fangs pierced it, followed by her drinking from it hungrily.

Padme stifled a shocked squeal with her hand across her mouth, with Anakin by her side holding her protectively. Yoda and Obi-wan watched her intensely as she drained the bag, discarding it against the opposite wall for the next until there was none left. Collapsing back on the bed, she began writhing in agony as several loud pops and crunches rang out through the room, each one causing her to groan in pain. After no more could be heard, she fainted limply on the bed.

Obi-wan watched as Anakin and Padme recoiled in horror, each of their faces were pale with what they had just witnessed. Anakin stood holding Padme upright, but he was clearly showing signs of unease. Yoda carefully walked back over to the table, activating the hologram once again, which now showed her ribs back inline, mirroring the other side. Red cracks could be seen as the pieces of bone slowly began to knit back together. Smiling, he turned back to the others, which had ventured closer to gain a better look, their eyes widening slightly as they viewed the hologram.

"Healing powers her species has, legendary it is. In time, regenerated she will be."

Talia whimpered slightly as Yoda carefully placed a small, clawed hand on her shoulder in a friendly gesture. _Rest old friend, safe it is now_. Obi-wan and Anakin relaxed as the tension hanging in the air diffused. Anakin's head began to fill with questions, but Padme was his prime concern for now. Taking her by her hand, he walked her back to the living area and sitting her down. Obi-wan had followed them, but had stopped by the galley to retrieve a drink for her. Anakin turned to him, hoping that his mentor had answers to his questions.

"You seem to be adjusted to this."

"Oh, she seems to be full of surprises. She told me a fair bit about herself before we met up with the pair of you on the asteroid station. Still, I had no idea she could do that, however she is a Jedi and a Guardian, although I'm not sure how that came to be. I haven't heard of a Guardian rank before."

"Yes, that was one of my questions too, when I first saw her back there, I could have sworn she was a Sith wearing those red and black robes."

Obi-wan stroked his beard and grinned at his friend, _You should have seen what she was wearing earlier_, he thought, chuckling in his mind. Anakin's eyes began to wander around the interior of the ship, impressed with the smooth graceful lines that formed the room. The control consoles caught his eye, being projected holographically a few inches above the crystalline panels. Everything about the ship seemed to show high quality and technology, beyond anything he had seen. Even with his piloting skills, he had struggled to control it when he was flying them away from the hanger. It was as if the ship was an extension of himself, but followed its own law of physics.

"Confusion I sense in you, young Skywalker."

Anakin turned when he heard Yoda right behind him, amazed that he was so lost in thought that he had not heard him coming. He felt slightly embarrassed to have slipped into that train of thought so easily when it came to machines and ships, it was un-Jedi-like to let his fascination run away with him, he was once told. Anakin bowed in respect to his Master.

"Forgive me, Master."

"Hmm, a part of your personality that is, something to forgive there is not. Questions you have, she can answer them for you."

Anakin nodded to Yoda as the Jedi Master made his way over to talk to Padme. He sensed an aura of stress and confusion from Padme, but it was quickly subsiding as Yoda and his wife talked. Turning to Obi-wan, his expression requested advice.

"Oh go on, she won't bite you, I'll go tend to the babies."

Obi-wan then swatted Anakin's back playfully, earning a reassured grin from Anakin before he walked down the corridor towards the medical bay. In the living area, the babies' hover-cots had been secured across from the seating area, Obi-wan found Luke sound asleep, but an aura of distress seemed to radiate from Leia through the Force. Obi-wan carefully picked her up and took her into his arms, as a foul smell assaulted his nostrils, contorting his face into a grimace. _Oh dear_.

The seat was uncomfortable, the room was crowded with species from half a dozen races, some of which she hadn't seen before, and her left leg was threatening to fall asleep. _At least I'm going somewhere_, she mused, although she grimaced when she remembered part of the deal she had to make with the captain of the passenger ship. The fare had been unfairly expensive, but she was desperate to escape that mining colony. So, she had agreed to work part-time as a waitress in the higher-class restaurant area of the large ship. Thinking of serving people that flaunted their finances for their own personal pleasures, while the occupants of the lower levels had to scrape their way through life to survive, made her feel sick.

Brushing her long, white hair aside from her face, her amber eyes glanced down at the chrono on her wrist. _My shift starts soon, I hope they don't make me wear some ridiculous uniform_. Gathering her carry bag and her long coat, satisfied that nobody had tampered with them, she made her way to the upper levels, the corridors becoming more clean and maintained. The security guards posted at the entrance to the higher-class areas sneered at her when they stopped her from passing, until she produced the keycard the captain had given her. Once they were satisfied that she hadn't stolen it from someone, they allowed her through into the decorated area. After finding her way to the kitchen and her supervisor, her heart sank when she was handed a uniform and directed to a changing room.

Anakin peeked through the door into the medical bay, smiling nervously when he noticed that Talia had spotted him.

"How are you feeling?"

Talia let out a small smile as she sipped on another packet of cloned blood. She sat upright on the bed, a grey blanket covering her legs.

"Much better, although I am still a little weak, healing like that takes a lot out of me."

She smirked at him as he remained by the door.

"You can come in you know."

"Uh huh…"

Anakin walked over to beside the bunk and sat in the solitary chair beside it. Around him, empty packets littered the floor, one of which was being carried away by one of the spider droids. She carried on smirking at him when he sat down.

"Did you enjoy your little stint at the controls of a Draconian ship?"

"Sort of, it was interesting to say the least."

"Yoda said something very similar when he first tried."

Anakin cocked an eyebrow at her, causing her to smile at him again.

"We were being chased by a group of rogue Jedi we were sent to find, he had just gained Knighthood and the council thought it best for him to assist me. They attacked me on mass and I lost my arm during the fight, he defeated the last of them and flew the ship back to the Temple on Coruscant."

Anakin was impressed, he had never heard of Yoda flying anything over a starfighter before, let alone a ship like this.

"There was something else I was meaning to ask you about, I mean, if you don't mind?"

Talia nodded.

"Why a Jedi Guardian? Surely with your experience, the council would have allowed you to become a Master?"

Talia sighed, she remembered her argument with the council almost a millennia ago as clearly as yesterday.

"After serving the council for three hundred years as a Knight, I felt that it was time for me to take on a padawan learner so that I may progress to becoming a Master. The council at the time, however, denied me this request on the basis that I may loose control of myself and feed from my padawan if I were seriously injured, to the point that it may kill them. It concerned them that the guilt that I may have felt would drive me to the Dark side of the Force and that I would turn on them."

Anakin kept quite as he took all of this in. Part of him said that it was a reasonable decision of the council at the time, but when he felt the sadness that Talia restrained within her, he could not help but feel that it was unfair of them.

"So, knowing of my skills, they granted me the rank of Guardian, to protect the Jedi by seeking out any groups that threatened the stability of the Order."

"That doesn't seem very fair to me, speculating that you would kill any padawan you trained."

"I suppose so, but that is in the past now. After spending a few centuries protecting the Order, I resigned to hibernation when the future of the Order seemed secure. Now, we shall see how I can help with this situation."

Anakin nodded.

"I'd like to think that you'd play a more active role than before. If we're going to re-establish the Order, then it would be fine with me if you still wanted to train people."

Talia smiled at this, the tips of her fangs showing.

"I'd love to."

Palpatine's shuttle landed on its private landing pad on Kamino. Lama Su, the Prime Minister, led a delegation to greet the Emperor as he walked down the boarding ramp, flanked by his personal Royal Guards. As he towered over the Emperor, he bowed enough to show his respect to him.

"Your Highness, welcome to Tipoca City, this does come at a surprise to us."

Palpatine was still infuriated by the failure of his assassin, but perhaps his answer could be found here.

"I have little time for the pleasantries Prime Minister, take me to your cloning laboratories and gather your best scientists, I have brought some of my own along."

Lama Su was confused by this request.

"My lord, our production of the clone armies continues as ordered and our higher level clones are still in experimental stages, is there some problem?"

"Those are of no concern to me, this is a personal project I hope will solve a dilemma of mine. Have the samples we have brought with us to the laboratory at once."

Lama Su bowed again.

"At once, my lord."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Space twisted and burst into a mist of red energy as the _Oni's Star_ crossed the portal back into normal space. This was the second time in the past week that they had dropped out of hyperspace to allow the jump-drive to recharge. As usual, Talia was at the controls, with Obi-wan and Yoda manning their consoles in the control room behind the cockpit. According to the ship's navigational starcharts, they had crossed most of the galaxy, heading towards the Outer Rim territories. Obi-wan was keeping a keen eye on his long-range radar display.

"Detecting two ships fifteen kilometres away, a passenger ship and another moving to dock with them. I can't make out much more at this range."

Talia's voice sounded through the comm.

"_I'm moving us closer for a better scan, they don't seem to have spotted us yet_."

Yoda had his eyes closed in meditation.

"Much fear and panic I sense, need our help they could."

"_Switch over to the passive sensors, Aria drop us into stealth mode_."

The glowing panels held within the wings dimmed to a dark red hue as the motivation field around the ship powered down to its minimum level. Talia slowly guided the ship closer to the other ships, the smaller one which had now docked with the passenger liner. As they neared, more details came through to Obi-wan's console, with Aria enhancing the exterior view of the smaller ship for him.

"Looks like a pirate ship, I'm detecting energy signatures on board the liner, probably weapon fire. There's around three hundred lifeforms on board the liner and falling."

"_Target the weapons on the pirate ship, we cannot let this continue_."

Throttling up, Talia raced towards the pair of ships. When they were within weapons range, Obi-wan and Yoda opened fire on the turrets of the pirate ship, disarming it completely. Cruising up to the pirate ship, Talia opened a comm. line to it.

"You are ordered to stand down and withdraw your boarding team pirate vessel. You have five minutes to do so."

"_Who the hell do you think you are? This is our bounty so back off or we'll start taking hostages!_"

"I'm the one with the beam cannon targeting your reactor core, withdraw your men and we shall allow you to leave without further damage."

A targeting laser extended from beside one of the forward cannons and shined its red beam onto the engine section of the pirate ship.

"_Ugh, fine. How about a deal? Say fifty fifty?_"

"No, leave now."

"_Fine, whatever you say, but you're going to regret this ya hear?_"

After a minute, the pirate ship detached from the boarding tube and began to move away from the passenger liner. The targeting laser followed it, still shining on the engines until they were far enough out.

"Aria, arm an ionic torpedo please."

"_Torpedo armed and ready_."

The torpedo ejected out of the top of the starboard forward bladed section and fired its tiny engine, streaking into the engines of the pirate ship. The ship was engulfed in blue electrical energy as it shuddered and stopped dead in space, almost all of its systems disabled. With a smile, Talia brought the ship over to the boarding tube of the liner and began the docking sequence. After releasing the restraints into the control yokes, Talia opened the door into the control room and was welcomed with an incredulous look from Obi-wan.

"You were going to destroy them?"

Talia grinned as she restrained a laugh.

"Scanning laser, but they bought it. I really cannot believe they fell for such an old trick."

The trio made their way into the living area, to their surprise Anakin was not there with Padme and the babies. Cocking an eyebrow, Talia walked down the hallway past the galley and stopped in front of a panel beside the galley's door. Pressing a control built into it, the panel retracted to reveal the cargo area that filled most of the port wing. Ducking her head in through the low doorway, she peered inside.

"Anakin?"

"Yeah?"

Talia ducked low and made her way inside, pipes and conduits criss-crossed the low ceiling as she made her way past a few cargo containers to the far wall. There, she found Anakin hunched over a workbench.

"Ah, I see you've found the repair bay."

"Yeah, well I've been in here since early morning."

"Would you care to join us?, we're boarding a passenger liner that has just been attacked by pirates and they could use our help."

"Sure, I'm finished now anyway."

Holding up his hand, the smooth white lightsaber hilt shined in the light. Instead of consisting of a tube, the hilt was oval in section, with a large white ellipse-shaped power cell at the base. The coverings flowed from the lower ellipse up to around the emitter, with dark grey plating that flowed underneath in a similar fashion as his new arm. Held in the centre of the power cell, was a smooth ruby gem that filled most of the ellipse. Talia looked around the bench, which was littered with tools and parts, some of which were easily recognisable.

"You made it out of one of the beam rifles and a breaching charge? I'm impressed."

Anakin smiled as he pressed the red activator trigger on the side of the hilt. Instantly, the thin, emerald blade formed above the emitter with a crackle of energy, just like Talia's swords. Talia's eyes widened in surprise at this, a few times she had tried to integrate Adegan crystals and Draconian power crystals together and failed, but he had achieved what she could not. She patted Anakin proudly on his shoulder, as he smiled and released the trigger, the blade disappearing into nothingness. They both rejoined Obi-wan in the living area, as Padme came in with Yoda.

"Stay with the ship we have agreed, the crew uncertain they may be of us. Advise caution I do."

The trio nodded before boarding the lift into the liner. When the doors opened, the corridor before them was filled with debris from exploded panels. The floor and walls were blackened from blaster fire and bodies littered the corridor. The Force screamed a warning as the three Jedi jumped to the sides of the door, blaster shots hitting the wall of the lift as they readied their hilts. Obi-wan carefully peered around the edge of the door, sighting a security guard training his rifle at the lift.

"We mean you no harm, we're here to help!"

"Come out slowly."

Anakin and Talia nodded towards him and the three of them slowly stepped out into the corridor. The guard kept his rifle levelled on them, his finger twitching on the trigger. Behind him two others held blaster rifles, one a civilian woman and the other a teenage boy. The guard narrowed his eyes as he recognised the robes two of them wore.

"What do you want _Jedi_? Are you in league with these mercs now?"

"No, like I said, we're here to help. We disabled their ship after we drove them off and came to tend to your wounded."

The guard paused for a moment, before he lowered his rifle. The woman and the boy came out from behind him, the woman trembling slightly while the boy kept his rifle trained on Talia as he eyed her skin-tight black leather outfit.

"I might not like it seeing as we've got orders to arrest you on sight, but I figure you could help us out. There's a group of em holding hostages up in the restaurant area, they've got the captain too. We're looking for anybody else that survived the attack to help us rescue em, any chance you would?"

Obi-wan glanced around to his companions, both of which nodded. Obi-wan turned back to the guard.

"Show us where."

She shuffled through the shoulder-width crawlspace, the blaster pistol held in her mouth. Cursing constantly in her mind as she squeezed through the narrow space, she wanted nothing more than getting off this liner in one piece. She had been readying her fake smile as she carried yet another dish to the patrons when the blaster fire had rang out. Mercenaries had poured through the entrance to the restaurant, immediately taking hostages. She had dropped her dish and backed away from the door, killing a pair of mercs with her wrist blades as they burst through the door. After stealing a pair of pistols, she had dived into an air vent before more came to investigate. After what seemed like an eternity, she came across a grate above a carpeted area. Peering through the grate, she could see a red carpet and hear blaster fire below. The grate shifted slightly, followed by a squeak. _Uh oh_…

Anakin peered through the oval-shaped glass window in the door to the restaurant. Turning to his companions he crouched low as they huddled behind the door, ready to burst into the room.

"I count six I can see. Two on the left, two on the right and two in the centre near the hostages. One of the centre mercs has a blaster aimed at a hostage's head."

Obi-wan readied his hilt. Talia positioned herself in the centre of the doors, a blade slowly slid from her wrist, surprising Anakin.

"On three, I shall take the centre pair, You two take the sides while the others give us covering fire."

The others nodded. Standing up, Talia kicked the door open and with a loud blast her wrist blade flew into the head of the guard aiming at the hostage. The trio ran into the room, igniting their lightsabers and making short work of the surprised mercenaries. The remaining merc next to the hostages opened fire at Talia, only to have the blaster bolts swatted away by her energy swords until one was reflected back into his chest. Three mercs charged through the doors to the kitchen, only to be mown down by blaster fire from the three crew members. Hostages were screaming in hysteria as the trio of Jedi formed a defensive circle in the centre of the restaurant. Talia's sensitive ears picked up a screech from the ceiling, _What the_…

With a loud clang, a grate fell into the centre of the Jedi, followed immediately by a girl as she fell from the ceiling to land with a thud on the floor, a pistol falling to land on her head. Talia turned her head to arch an eyebrow at the strange girl, until her eyes widened when she noticed her white hair. A merc took the opportunity to dive from his hiding spot behind a table to train a rifle at the trio, only to have an emerald blade tossed from Anakin embedded between his eyes. He collapsed onto the floor, the blade following his head to stand straight up, suspending the hilt vertically above the floor. Obi-wan surveyed the area with the Force, until he deactivated his hilt.

"That seems to be all of them."

"Ouch."

All of their eyes locked onto the girl on the floor as she sat up, rubbing her head. Anakin went to retrieve his lightsaber, surprised to find it still activated and sticking out of the merc's head, _Weird, it should have turned off or cut its way through by now_.

She noticed a gloved hand being offered to her as she glanced around, rubbing her sore head. Accepting it, she was easily pulled to her feet, only to find her mouth hanging agape when she saw the face of the woman helping her. Two pairs of feline eyes locked onto each other in shock, the red pair widening when they noticed her small fangs. Glancing down from her eyes, she was shocked to see a pair of long fangs appear when the woman's mouth fell open in surprise. She then noticed her white hair, _What the_…._she looks a lot like me!_

Talia released her hand as Anakin went to check on the hostages. Obi-wan turned to face the pair as they silently analyzed each other.

"Well, this is unexpected. A friend of yours, Talia?"

"It would appear so."

The girl looked around, noticing the dismembered mercenaries before her eyes caught one with a long silver blade in his head. She turned back to Talia.

"Who are you?"

"Jedi Guardian Talia Shirikari, and you are?"

"Mira Onari, I've been searching for others like me, you're the same as me aren't you?"

"Of sorts."

"But you can tell me what I am? Can you?"

"It would be best if you would come with us then, there is a lot you need to know."

Mira nodded as Anakin rejoined them, turning to Obi-wan.

"The captain is organising his crew and the passengers are calming down, they should be ready to leave soon."

"Seems like we have a new friend, Anakin meet Mira."

Anakin shook Mira's hand, immediately noticing her amber feline eyes and long white hair.

"So you're a Draconian too huh? Pleased to meet you."

"Uh, likewise."

Mira looked back at Talia, confusion in her face.

"Draconian?"

"That is why I said of sorts, you're a halfling, not quite a pureblood Draconian."

Mira slowly nodded in understanding, but was pleased she had at least finally found someone she could learn from. After retrieving her carry bag and finally ridding herself of that embarrassing faded pink waitress uniform, she changed into her normal black top, leather trousers and brown leather coat. After checking her possessions in her carry bag, she rejoined the Jedi at the boarding tube. After growling at Anakin when he made a choice comment about the waitress uniform, they quickly arrived back on the _Star_.

Talia left them as she headed towards the cockpit, Obi-wan on her heels. Anakin went to check on Padme and the babies, leaving Mira to wander round the living area, her eyes taking in the interior of the ship, _I've never been on a ship that looks this good, it looks brand new_.

"Questions you have? Hmmm?"

Mira turned to see a small long-eared creature standing in the hallway, his hands resting on a crude walking stick. The wisps of hair and heavy wrinkles made him look ancient, the home-spun robes he wore didn't help matters.

"Ancient I am?! Younglings these days…hmm."

Confusion swept across her face, _did he just read my mind?_

The creature hobbled over to a seating area built into the nearby wall, she followed him with her eyes, unsure of what to do.

"Come, sit. Hurt you I will not, answers for some of your questions I have, Mira."

She slowly walked over to sit across from him. He smiled reassuringly at her confused gaze. It suddenly clicked in her mind who he was, something her mother had told her years ago before she started her journey.

"You're Master Yoda of the Jedi, aren't you?"

Yoda smiled.

"Insight, serves you well it does."


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10 

Obi-wan muffled a yawn with the sleeve of his tunic as he bowed slightly and entered the dimly-lit galley. Groggily making his way to the food dispenser, he was greeted with a warm cup of caff pouring itself from it. Smiling to himself, he mentally noted to thank Aria for quickly learning this small routine he had each morning, although in his mind he could see Qui-Gon's frown at the small amount of sweetener he added. With a grin, he took a quick sip before seating himself down at the table, a data-pad held in his free hand. Before he could start reading the next chapter of the novel he was reading, a quick glance caused his heart to skip a beat and made him jump in surprise.

Talia sat in the darker end of the alcove around the table, her thick black cloak wrapped around her, still as a statue. Her breath could hardly be heard in the quiet galley as she stared into a space beyond the table, the vague shape of her knees drawn up to her chest. Obi-wan slowly placed his cup down on the table, the small noise it made as it contacted with the surface seemed deafening in the small room. She didn't move from her position, just rolled her feline eyes in his direction.

"Good morning."

Obi-wan cleared the sleepiness from his throat before gently smiling at her.

"Morning, how long have you been up?"

"I haven't slept yet."

He could sense her unease, not directed at him, something distant.

"I sense that you're worried about going back to your home planet, may I ask why? Surely you have family, friends there?"

Talia slowly shook her head.

"There's no one there."

He could tell not just by the quiet tone in her voice, but in the far away look in her eyes that she wasn't just talking about the people she knew. He felt a pang of sadness run through him, but he knew it must be incomparable to how she felt. He leaned back against his chair, thoughts of regretting the questions he had asked flashing through his mind as another question escaped his lips.

"How?"

Talia only continued to stare into the space only she could see.

"If I told you now, it would be difficult for you to understand, you need to see it for yourself."

She slowly rose from her seat at the table and made her way towards the door, pausing to softly lay a reassuring hand on his shoulder before she disappeared into the corridor, leaving Obi-wan alone with his thoughts.

Palpatine sat at the control console, his fingers entwined as his elbows rested on the edge of the console. His face remained partially hidden behind his hands as his eyes continuously scanned the hologram of the DNA helix projected over the console. Beside it, rows of DNA data were being compiled and checked by the computer for compatibility, some segments being highlighted as faulty. A frown crossed his brow as the number of faulty segments gradually increased, mostly crowded in a single part of the helix.

Turning the display off as the computer finished its programming, Palpatine activated a comm. line to the main laboratory.

"Send the scientist responsible for segment 12 to me immediately."

He did not have long to wait before the doors opened to allow a nervous, middle-aged man into the darkened room. Sweat beaded on his face as he cautiously walked towards the Emperor. He had crossed halfway through the room when Palpatine brought a hand up towards him, fingers outstretched. The man froze in the centre of the room as an invisible force seized hold of him. The room was quiet enough to hear the doors lock behind him as he began to tremble, sweat running down his horrified face.

"My…my lord, please…."

Palpatine's face relaxed into a figure of complacency as he forced his hand to close slightly. The man's eyes bulged from their sockets in pain as he felt his body being crushed, the muscles in his outstretched arms and legs screaming as they were twisted. He let out a small cry of pain as he felt his fingers of both of his hands being pulled outwards, Palpatine responding with a sneer in his voice.

"Why must your lack of competence continue to irritate me, doctor?"

The man groaned in pain before he could force words from his mouth.

"My lord…the sequence is complex..."

Palpatine's frown returned as he flexed his index finger. The man screamed as his right elbow snapped backwards, the broken limb falling to hang twitching towards the floor.

"Your lack of progress is unacceptable doctor."

Tears began to form in the corner of the man's eyes as he mentally pleaded the Emperor to let him go. Palpatine sneered as he sensed this request through the Force and flexed his middle finger. Another sickening crunch sounded through the room, quickly followed by a scream as his left arm mirrored his right. Palpatine rose from his desk, walking around it and up to the writhing doctor, watching in amusement as he twisted the doctor's organs with the Force. The doctor cried out in agony as some blood escaped from the edge of his mouth, running down his jaw line.

"Please…please my lord…the catalysts…they can't bond the sequence…in that segment."

He screamed as Palpatine grimaced and slowly began to close the remaining fingers of his hand. His legs began to writhe and twist as he screamed.

"That is not what I want to hear doctor, I want results not excuses!"

He let out an agonizing scream as both of his knees snapped simultaneously. Palpatine withdrew the Force from him, dropping him to the floor and causing his broken joints to pop sickeningly. He watched in satisfaction as tears streamed from the doctor's eyes as he groaned in agony. A pair of Royal guards walked from the shadows into the dim light in the centre of the room.

"Have him taken back to the laboratory, as an example to the others."

Trails of energy danced from the Oni's Star as the portal to hyperspace closed behind it. The space surrounding the ship took on a scarlet hue as the Star's cockpit filled with the view of the vast nebula. Anakin looked over his screen curiously before opening a comm. line to the cockpit.

"The Aras nebula? I heard it can't be navigated, few ships ever made it out of the outer corona in one piece."

Talia smirked as she continued guiding the ship towards it.

"_There is a tri-solar system inside, however it is surrounded by a very dense asteroid field. Can you start securing everything? This will get a little rough_."

Anakin nodded and left the forward control room. Making his way back into the living area, he found Padme already securing the hover-cots to the wall and making sure the babies were safe. After checking over them all, Anakin strapped himself into the seat beside Padme and the babies. In the control room, Obi-wan and Yoda had also strapped themselves into their seats, an extra seat had been added beside Yoda for Mira.

"We're ready Talia,"

Talia let out a small sigh as she adjusted a few controls on her yokes.

"Aria, unlock the Vertia's and bring us into descent mode."

Outside, the edges of the wings split open while each wing split horizontally, each revealing its own bracing arm into the hull. The inner panels slid forwards as a pair of outer panels retracted backwards and angled around towards the rear of the ship. Each wing then began floating slightly, independently from the others as the drive system brought itself to full power. Inside, the lighting dimmed within the cockpit as several holograms displayed a tactical position of the ship around Talia. Similar displays were projected on Obi-wan's and Yoda's screens.

"_Yoda, could you and Mira patch the scanning lasers to the radar system and keep watch for me?_"

"Same as last time hmmm?"

"_Yes, but I do hope we have better luck than we had last time. Coming to think of it, Obi-wan could you keep an eye on the gyro compensator display?_"

"Yes I'll watch it, any reason why?"

"_It might fall out of sync with the vertia drive, if that happens the wings will lose control over the motivation field and we'll probably hit an asteroid_."

"I'll keep that in mind."

"_One more thing, if the gauge moves over into the yellow, vent the excess energy through the rear emitters. If you leave it until the gauge goes into the red the vertia's panels will burn out_."

"Can't Aria control that for you?"

Talia could sense the worry radiating from Obi-wan and into the Force.

"_No, she's busy helping me navigate the asteroid field. Don't worry, with the four of us it will be much easier than last time_."

Mira turned her head to look at Yoda, who caught her glance.

"Dare I ask?"

Yoda shook his head before they both turned back to adjusting their controls. Anakin was beginning to worry himself from the waves of unease he felt from his old master, until Yoda opened a comm. line to him.

"Worry not, focused you must be, faith in the Force will shall all require if to cross this path."

Anakin felt slightly ashamed of himself for not realising that, it was one of the basic lessons taught to every padawan.

"Forgive me Master, I shall renew my efforts to remain focused."

Yoda nodded before he turned back to concentrating on the display.

"Entering the outer corona, we are."

The ship began to shake slightly as the hull contacted the waves of fine particles that outlined the nebula. Talia began to adjust her controls to compensate.

"Aria, can you transfer an extra five percent power to the front panels please?"

"_Transfer complete_."

The vibration that shook the ship reduced to a low buffeting as the field in front of the Star was reinforced. Small discharges of red energy began arcing between the gaps between each of the wing panels as it conducted across the particles of the nebula.  
Talia gracefully guided the ship past a growing number of asteroids while keeping her distance from some of the smaller groups. Glancing at her navigational hologram, she confirmed that they were still on course.

After two hours of manoeuvring around groups of asteroids, the fog of the nebula began to thicken as they flew deeper inside. Suddenly, the asteroids seemed to disappear as if they had entered a calm patch in the nebula. Talia remembered this happening on her previous trip as she thumbed the comm. line switch.

"Yoda, Mira, start your scanning lasers. Don't rely on the radar anymore it can't detect some of them."

Four panels retracted on the hull to allow two pairs of small turrets to extend above and below the front bladed sections. They began sweeping the surroundings with red scanning beams, the space between the beams illuminating with an orange tint as the ship cruised through the fog. A pair of beams swept in front of the ship, illuminating a large asteroid. Talia angled her yokes upward slightly, bringing the ship up and around as Mira's eyes widened in surprise at her display

"Two if them coming right at us!"

Talia gritted her teeth as she swung the ship between the two approaching asteroids, leaving them to impact against the one they had just past. Rolling the ship to avoid the scattered debris from the impact, her eyes glanced back and forth as she spotted a dense wall of asteroids in their path. Spying a gap between them, she narrowly evaded colliding with one before it ground against another as she flew between them.

The ship emerged from the wall into a waves of fast moving, smaller rocks which caused her to roll and twist the ship erratically to avoid them. Weaving the ship around one of the slower moving large asteroids, she had to pull away fast when it was torn apart from one of the smaller rocks passing through it.

"I can see something strange up ahead, it's got the mass of one of the asteroids but is reading as metallic."

The object loomed out from the scarlet fog, scanning beams passing over it and illuminating it as they flew past. It was slightly bent as if it were part of a circle, but was at least the size of a republic cruiser. Obi-wan looked on fascinated, the ornate design of its outer hull seemed vaguely recognisable now. The surface of the hull was dented with impacts and the bottom and top were torn apart and the interior exposed.  
Talia's voice over the comm. provided an answer.

"_Take a good look, it's a part of what happened here millennia ago_."

"What is it?"

"_A section of one of the accelerator rings, you shall see soon enough_."

The fog began to disperse as they flew deeper, revealing three bright stars shining through the red mist before it disappeared completely. As the ship continued to near the system, the radar showed a dark planet with a single moon sitting between all three stars. A thin, solitary ring encircled the planet at an angle to its equator. After passing the moon, the smooth lines and shine of the ring revealed that it was artificially constructed. In the cockpit, Talia smiled sadly.

"Welcome to Draconis everyone."


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Talia glided the Oni's Star into one of the large docking bays that encircled the orbiting ring around the planet. The ring was a huge diamond-shape in profile, which was split into upper and lower sections with docking bays of various sizes dotted between the sections. The top and bottom corners of these sections were of a darker grey colour and rotated in opposite directions to each other.

After crossing through the magnetic shield, large doors slowly closed over the opened end of the bay, as the ship extended its claw-shaped landing struts and gently landed on the hanger floor. Exiting the cockpit, she made her way into the living area where Aria was projecting a view of the exterior for the others.

"I need to go and deactivate some of the planetary defence systems, Mira you're with me. You are welcome to explore the station if you wish, there are resting facilities in the hallway to the left if you need them. I have already checked the logs and nobody has discovered this place since Yoda and I were last here, so it is quite safe."

Padme was hesitant to leave the newborns on the ship, until Aria managed to convince her and Anakin that she could look after them while they explored the station. After gathering their personal supplies and descending the boarding ramp, Obi-wan opted to tag along with Mira and Talia as they entered a turbo lift. Taking note of the architecture of the station, Obi-wan was eerily reminded of his tour of Tipoca City on Kamino.

"How old is this place?"

"To be honest, I don't actually know."

Mira looked at Talia surprised, until a glance from her provided an explanation.

"Throughout our history, this orbital ring station has always been here. From what we do know, we summarised that our ancestors built it to protect us from any debris from the asteroid fields by projecting a gravitic shield around the planet."

"So it wasn't an asteroid or something that killed everyone?"

Talia sighed at Mira's curiosity, she knew Mira had a right to know what happened but she still didn't like to talk about it.

"No, our own fears and arrogance did that."

The lift chimed as they arrived at their destination. The doors opened to allow them into the control room, which itself opened out into a huge room. At the centre of the room, a huge mechanism which consisted of three slowly rotating rings orbited a collection of scarlet crystals. The crystals hovered within the mechanism and glowed when a ring passed over them. At the very centre was a scarlet orb the size of an astromech droid, which glowed with inner energy.

Talia walked straight over to the centre console, which sprang to life and projected holographic controls and displays of many colours and patterns around her. After pressing on a few holographic buttons, a large three-dimensional wireframe display of the planet illuminated next to them. The surface of the planet had numerous red dots littered in random groups, as Talia's fingers flew over the controls they turned to a green colour. Mira tore her attention away from her study of this large projection and turned to her.

"You still haven't really explained what happened."

She grit her teeth, the tip of one of her fangs digging into her gum painfully. After a deep breath, her fingers danced over the controls for the memory logs. The projection of the planet changed from a wireframe to a much more detailed real-time view of the surface and orbital station.

"Ring, transfer accelerator ring project to the viewer and expand."

"_Acknowledged_."

Obi-wan noticed that the station's computer voice sounded very much like that of Aria's as they projection expanded to fill the control room, showing the asteroid field near the walls. Two small rings appeared above the north and south poles of the planet, in-line with the orbital station above the equator. A third ring of equal size to the smaller rings appeared near the asteroid field. Talia withdrew from the holographic controls and slowly walked over to the display of the planet. In place of the dark planet of before, the surface had a region of volcanic activity encircling the equator. The upper and lower hemispheres had oceans and landmasses with cities strewn randomly, some of which on the oceans.

"This is Draconis as it was a millennia ago."

Mira and Obi-wan studied the planet, neither of them had seen anything like it before, even without the station encircling the planet. Talia turned back to the display before she continued.

"As our people and technology thrived, The High Council thought it to be in the best interests of our race to join the Republic and open trade agreements with the other members. The first and largest obstacle however, was the asteroid field which prevented anything other than a Draconian ship with its unique manoeuvrability from passing through safely. Using our knowledge of this station, we theorised that using two rings to manipulate the gravitic field and a third to target it, a safe passage through the field could be formed."

Obi-wan was stroking his beard as he absorbed this information.

"Quite impressive."

"Yes, well, after the Senate had voted to assist us with the project, we had our best and brightest scientists working alongside the scientists from the Republic. After copying one of the thirteen graviton generators found in this station, each ring was built with four generators each. However, unrest came from our people. As the project came to completion, a xenophobic faction developed that resisted our step to join with the rest of the galaxy, claiming that our technology would be abused and that we as a race were not yet ready to expand into the galaxy. When the accelerator rings were first activated, the power consumption required that the rings could only remain active long enough for a single freighter to travel through the field, before they had to recharge for a day. Ring, display file footage of the _Heaven's Keep_."

A ship appeared, Obi-wan assumed it to be a medium-sized freighter, travelling between the planets upper ring and headed towards the asteroid ring. As had come to be typical with Draconian ships, it was of smooth lines and several glowing panels for its propulsion.

"This was the first ship to cross through the asteroid field in this way. It was carrying explorers and scientists, eager to test the new method of transport that promised to liberate our race from our asteroid prison. Little did we know that some of the factionists were aboard."

As the ship crossed through the asteroid ring, explosions began erupting from the hull. Scarlet lightening arced from the drive panels to the asteroid ring, which began exploding internally. As the ship finally exploded, the ring glowed brilliantly before it too exploded and sent an angry ring of energy back to the upper planetary ring. The upper ring exploded, simultaneously joined by the lower ring.

A shockwave of energy from those explosions rippled around the planet and back to the orbital ring station, which glowed as scarlet lightening danced over its surface. After a moment, the energy was released down to the planets surface, where it separated at the volcanic region at the equator and spread itself over the entire planets surface. It left darkness in its wake until the energy finally dissipated at each of the poles.

Mira and Obi-wan were shaken from their entrancement of what they had just witnessed by the sound of soft sobs from Talia. The amber-eyed Draconian gently wrapped her arms around her as tears began to roll down her cheeks, which she slowly returned. After a moment, Talia gestured to her with a nod before she continued.

"Later in the design stages, a group of scientists theorised that the reason why this ring has an odd number of generators is to balance out and dissipate any excess power flow. They were shunned when they spoke out to the Council and dropped from the project. The four power generators on the rings that we constructed could not handle the overload and once it began, the computer on this ring could not control it and shutdown to preserve itself."

Mira withdrew from her, but remained holding onto her upper arms as she stared at her confused.

"But if the computer here was not working and there were no other ships, how did you know all this?"

Talia looked up at her before smiling slightly.

"Look behind you."

Mira let go from Talia as she turned around. Noticing a small ship a few feet away from her, she walked closer to it to gain a better view. Floating stationary there was the familiar dagger-shape of the _Oni's Star_. She whirled around back to Talia, her mouth hanging agape.

"Because I was there."

Mira didn't understand, she had said that all of this happened a millennia ago. How could she have possibly been there? She looked only around ten years older than herself, no more than her late twenties in standard galactic. It simply wasn't possible.

"Mira, may I ask you a personal question?"

She nodded dumbly.

"Roughly how old are you?"

That question came to be the bit of surprise her mind needed to snap her out of her reverie.

"What do you mean a personal question? I'm eighteen, nineteen in a few months, how is that personal?"

Talia walked over to look at her eyes as if studying her.

"We are generally not very fore-coming about how old we are to other species, with good reason. Didn't your parents ever tell you?"

Mira just looked back at her with a confused expression spread across her face as she slowly shook her head. Talia glanced over to Obi-wan, who was studying them both with some interest. _She doesn't know_. Leaning her head in beside Mira's face until her mouth was level with her ear, she whispered so Obi-wan couldn't overhear.

"Draconians live for roughly five thousand years, I am three thousand, one hundred and twenty nine."

Mira's eyes widened as her mouth dropped open in shock. Talia smiled gently as she withdrew her head from beside Mira's. She continued to look at her eyes.

"So now you know, although you're still technically an infant, I'm unsure of your natural lifespan given that you're only half-draconian."

Mira could only blink as her mind struggled to absorb this information. She knew she and her mother were different from other people, to the point where her family had been chased out of the system that much she could remember. Memories of her father dying aboard their ship and her mother dying in her arms weeks later resurfaced until she mentally pushed them back down into the back of her mind. _Live for the here and now, but don't forget the past_, her mother had always told her. Talia sensed her inner struggle, but Mari's expression was what caught her eye.

"You're the daughter of Tera Onari, aren't you?"

Mari blinked as she heard her mother's name.

"How would you know that?"

"You have the same innocently-lost look about you, other things I have noticed also. You're hair is styled the same as hers was and I'm sure that is the same bag she took with her when she left the last time I saw her. If it weren't for your eyes, you'd look almost identical to her when she was your age. We were good friends, how is she?"

Mari diverted her eyes sullenly to the ground.

"She died, ten years ago. I've been travelling ever since then."

Talia closed her eyes, tears threatening to form again as she thought of her lost friend. Thoughts of seeing her again were washed away as she managed to slowly force out a question she wasn't sure she'd like the answer to.

"How?"

"Mom and Dad were smugglers, I went along with them for as long as I can remember. They were checking on the cargo when it leaked out poison gas. Mom sealed the cargo bay when the alarms went off. I watched Mom holding Dad from the window as he died, she opened the door when the filters had cleared the room. Mom got sick a few weeks after, she just kept getting weaker no matter how much blood she drank. Doctors said she had terminal blood poisoning, nothing they could do for her. I was there when she died, doctors said it was painless, wasn't for me."

Talia slowly nodded as tears ran from her eyes.

"After she died, I went after the people that hired us to take that shipment, killed them all for taking away my family like that, turns out somebody else hired them to do it. I've been running from them ever since then. The last thing Mom told me to do was to seek out Master Yoda and that he could help me get home, but it looks like I'm not as alone as I thought I was. Which reminds me…"

Mira unhooked her bag from her shoulder and started un-strapping a large object that was wrapped with cloth from it. After she had freed it, she began unwrapping the cords that secured the cloth around it.

"Mom gave this to me before she passed away, she didn't say what it was, just that it belonged to me. I've been trying everywhere to find out what it is, was hoping somebody like me would know, but you're the first I've found."

When she had removed the last of the cloth that hid it from view, she held up an intricate hilt just shorter than her arm. Two orb-shaped scarlet crystals were held at each end, one slightly larger than the other. Through the elaborately-made shining metal that linked the two crystals together, another thinner but longer crystal could be seen held in the centre. Talia's eyes went wide as she stared at it, her body frozen in shock at the sight of it.

"I figured it was some sort of a weapon, but there's no button or switch on it. Every weapons dealer I've met couldn't tell me anything, one suggested it was a Jedi's lightsaber, but I've seen them before and this is different. Looking at those things on your sides, you might know. Any ideas?"

"I know exactly what it is. It's a Spirit Lance…"

The crystals on the hilt that Mira held suddenly glowed.


End file.
